Andrew W. Wright

Andrew is the firm's Tax Practice Area Leader and the State and Local Tax Practice Leader. He deals with all aspects of state and local tax (SALT), and though his primary focus is on New York State and New York City matters, Andrew handles multistate SALT matters as well. 

Andrew has in-depth experience in the area of state tax residency and assists clients from the planning stage through the audit and appeal processes.  Andrew counsels clients planning moves out of states like New York on how to accomplish their moves in ways most likely to be accepted by state taxing authorities on audit, while also allowing the clients to maintain some connections to their former home state.  He also counsels clients, often in connection with a change of residence, on structuring transactions and ongoing business relationships to minimize the taxes owed by clients to states in which they are non-residents.

While Andrew prefers to advise clients on the front-end of a move, he also understands that many clients will only seek his counsel after they’ve received an audit notice.  Andrew has extensive experience defending clients’ residency changes in the audit context.  Andrew is a tenacious advocate for his clients.  When audits or administrative tax litigation is involved, Andrew rolls up his sleeves and goes head-to-head with auditors and lawyers representing the state tax departments.  In the residency space, Andrew has successfully represented hundreds of clients in audits and well over 100 clients in appeals of contested residency audits.  

Andrew's experience in residency matters also extends to 548-day rule and 30-day rule planning and audits. He has successfully helped many clients plan for, execute, and defend on audit, 548-day rule and 30-day rule strategies, which resulted in nonresident status in New York. Clients he assists in these matters include:  New Yorkers wishing to minimize state and/or city tax on discrete liquidity events, US expatriates working abroad, and those wishing to change their residency to a foreign country.

Andrew is also involved in a host of other New York tax controversy work.  Recent matters include – audits and appeals dealing with the application of the New York’s MCTMT to limited partner income, Article 9A corporate apportionment audits, and New York sales and use tax audits and appeals. 

Finally, Andrew is heavily involved in the area of multistate tax compliance for cross-border businesses. In conjunction with appropriate federal and international tax planning, Andrew advises on U.S. state and local tax compliance issues to identify tax liability and risk concerns for cross-border businesses. Once the compliance issues are identified, Andrew works with these businesses to resolve past compliance issues and ensure compliance on a go-forward basis.

Services

Education

Allegheny College, B.A., magna cum laude

Syracuse University College of Law, J.D., magna cum laude

Admissions

• New York