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Samuel M. Maruca

Senior Counsel

Washington +1 202 662 5161

  • About
  • Representative Matters
  • Credentials
  • About

    Sam Maruca has practiced exclusively in the area of federal income tax since 1983, focusing in recent years on large-case controversies, including complex transfer pricing disputes. He has represented both U.S. and foreign-based multinational companies in the biopharmaceutical, information technology, internet commerce, communications and media, consulting services, heavy manufacturing, and retail sectors, in matters at the audit level, in IRS Appeals, in mediation, in competent authority, and in the courts.

    His expertise includes the preparation of opinion letters and compliance advice relating to cross-border financing transactions and transfer pricing matters; interpretation of tax treaties; treatment of controlled foreign corporations under subpart F; taxation of inbound transactions; and the applicability of penalty regimes. In advising clients, he often collaborates with foreign legal advisers and works regularly with leading transfer pricing economists and industry experts. 

    Government Experience

    From 2011-2014, Sam served as the first Director of Transfer Pricing Operations in the Large Business & International Division of the Internal Revenue Service, where he had national responsibility for transfer pricing compliance and double tax cases under US tax treaties. Sam also represented the IRS in connection with the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) initiative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”).

    Areas of Expertise

  • Practices and Industries
  • Representative Matters
    • Advising both U.S. and foreign-based multinationals in designing and implementing appropriate structural and operational responses to the OECD’s BEPS initiative.
    • Assisting a major foreign-based business consulting firm in an internal corporate restructuring and in designing and implementing cross-border financing arrangements.
    • Assisting a foreign-based pharmaceutical company in preparing its defense of an outbound transfer of patent rights.
    • Advised senior executives of a U.S.-based biotechnology company on the transfer pricing and related tax consequences of a cross-border restructuring of the company’s intangible property holdings and manufacturing operations.
    • Represented a foreign-based telecommunications company in a dispute involving transfer pricing for products, services and intangible property, among other complex cross-border transactions and financings, in which the IRS asserted over $300 million in adjustments, and which resulted in refunds of tax.

    • For a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company, negotiated bilateral advanced pricing agreements and competent authority proceedings covering multiple transaction flows.
    • Represented the taxpayers in Robinson v. United States, 335 F.3d 1365 (2003), rev’g and remanding, 52 Fed. Cl. 725 (2002), in which the taxpayers successfully challenged a Treasury regulation under Internal Revenue Code section 83.
    • For a foreign-based specialty materials manufacturer, negotiated one of the first-ever bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements and a “roll-back” covering 14 taxable years, and resulting in no income adjustments.
    • Represented a U.S.-based retailer in a multi-billion dollar transfer pricing dispute involving the valuation of trademarks, trade dress and technology, which was resolved successfully at the audit level.
    • Represented a foreign-based pharmaceutical company in a multi-billion dollar transfer pricing dispute involving the valuation of U.S. marketing and distribution functions.
    • Represented a major U.S.-based homebuilder in the successful resolution in a “fast track” procedure of a dispute involving the application of the completed contract method of accounting for profits from the development of planned communities.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Credentials
    Education
    • Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 1982
        • with honors
        • Georgetown Law Journal, Member
    • Yale University, B.A., 1977
        • with honors
        • distinction in the major
    Bar Admissions
    • District of Columbia
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • U.S. Tax Court
    Government Experience
    • U.S. Department of the Treasury – Internal Revenue Service
    Accolades
    • Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers, Tax (2010; 2016-2023)
    • Legal 500 US, Tax (2015-2016)
    • Best Lawyers in America, Tax Law (2016-2021)
    Memberships and Affiliations
    • American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation
    • International Fiscal Association
    • Treasurer, The Fred Abramson Foundation

    Areas of Expertise

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