TAX AND ACCOUNTING BEAR TRAPS FOR THE UNWARY

While accounting and tax issues have always been fundamental to real estate transactions, these issues are now playing a pivotal role in today’s distressed real estate market. This panel will discuss how Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accounting, valuation, impairment, and tax issues impact investments in, and divestiture of, distressed hard and paper assets. In addition, the panel will highlight the tax- and accounting-related issues most commonly encountered in the areas of real estate valuation, including debt modifications, recapitalization, and debt forgiveness.

MODERATOR

Scott Farb, Managing Principal
Reznick Group
Scott Farb is the managing principal of Reznick Group’s Los Angeles office, a national accounting firm with offices and clientele throughout the United States and worldwide. Mr. Farb has extensive experience with public and private real estate companies including private equity funds, pension funds investing in real estate, commercial and residential property owners and operators, hotels and resorts, real estate developers, and homebuilders.

PANELISTS

Dirk Aulabaugh, Senior Director
Alvarez & Marsal Real Estate Advisory Services LLC
Dirk Aulabaugh, a senior director with Alvarez & Marsal Real Estate Advisory Services LLC, has more than 17 years of real estate transaction, restructuring, valuation, and consulting experience. Mr. Aulabaugh serves a national client base that includes financial service firms, corporations, real estate investors/developers, owners, real estate funds, and major REITs.

Polina Chapiro, Partner
Green Hasson & Janks LLP
Polina Chapiro is head of the Green Hasson & Janks LLP tax department and has more than 25 years of tax experience in the areas of corporate reorganizations, M&A, cross-border transactions, partnerships, tax provisions, and tax audits. Ms. Chapiro possesses extensive experience in the real estate, entertainment, and technology industries. She has served as a director of international tax with a private equity firm, a director of tax for a public company, and a tax partner with a Big Four accounting firm, which included an expatriate assignment. MORE>

Bradley Hall, Managing Director
Cyburt Hall Partners, LLC
Bradley Hall is a cofounder and managing director of Cyburt Hall Partners, LLC, a real estate investment management and development firm. During Mr. Hall's 20-year career, he has been an investor, principal, or advisor in more than $6 billion of real estate and operating company transactions including both private and public entities in performing, nonperforming, and distressed real estate investments, loans, and ventures. Prior to forming Cyburt Hall Partners, LLC, he was a senior partner at Ernst & Young. MORE>

Joel Shine, CEO
Luisant Corp.
Joel Shine has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate industry. He has developed thousands of homes and condominiums, in addition to numerous office buildings, shopping centers, and apartment complexes. He has formed and managed several institutional investment funds totaling more than $750 million, and is considered a leading expert in real estate restructuring.

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