Attorney knows scope of 'Multistate Taxation in Digital Age'

By Sheila Pursglove Legal News Lynn Gandhi, a partner at Honigman in Detroit and an adjunct professor at Wayne Law, remembers when she would put a phone receiver into a black box on the desk to connect to the Internet. Students in her "Multistate Taxation in the Digital Age" class might chuckle, but they also learn that the digital age not only made on-line research fast and easy, it dramatically changed the landscape for state revenue purposes. "We live in a service economy with consumer purchases of digital consumables," Gandhi says. "Our sales tax laws were developed around a manufacturing environment where 'goods' were shipped. Today, it's not clear 'where' services are performed, or where the 'benefit' of a purchase is received. These are concepts more recently adopted by states in developing their state tax regimes, the terms are mostly undefined, not settled by case law, and create uncertainty for state governments facing revenue constraints." She enjoys the challenges in explaining a complicated area of the law in a way her students can understand. "Every time I prepare for class, and read a case I've read over a dozen times before, I'll find something new," she says. "I also hope to convert one or two students into considering a career in tax--finding a way to differentiate yourself in today's legal market is key to success." Past president of the Michigan Women's Tax Association, Gandhi is an officer of the Tax Council --the governing body of the State Bar Tax Section--and sits on a few professional boards. She is also a registered lobbyist with the State of Michigan, and assists clients in tax legislative matters. She is a specialist in State and Local Tax--a.k.a. SALT. "Most law students don't know that tax isn't a mathematical field, it's about the analytics and allows creative thinking," she says. "SALT litigation is constitutionally based, and you spend most of your time arguing the implications of a tax method and whether it passes muster for commerce clause concerns. Federal tax practitioners don't get that opportunity." Tax law is always changing, so the area never gets stale, she says. "In addition, particularly in SALT, public policy and government come together when we implement new or change old tax laws," Gandhi says. Most states have credit and incentives program to encourage capital investment and development, as well as federal programs such as New Market Tax Credits and Foreign Trade Zones, both of which are driven by tax benefits, she says. Unclaimed property, while technically not a tax, is also an area in which she spends a lot of time, as the audit process and dispute resolution is within the state's Treasury Department. Gandhi, who previously worked at Visteon Corporation, CMS Energy, Praxair, CBI Industries, and Arthur Young LLP, has worked at Honigman for five years. She started out as a pre-med student at Kalamazoo College before switching to economics and history. She holds an LL.M in Taxation from New York University School of Law, and a JD from Wayne Law School, where she was Assistant Survey Editor of the Wayne Law Review. "Most law classes I took opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking. I enjoyed the intersection of problem solving and public policy, the puzzle-solving aspects of the transactional side of tax law, and later I was exposed to tax litigation and the excitement that litigation brings." While working at Arthur Young in Chicago, she started taking night classes in accounting to better understand the lingo of financial reporting; she accumulated enough credits to take the CPA exam, and is a registered CPA in Michigan and Illinois. Gandhi is married to an attorney--"But his specialty is Intellectual Property so our kids are spared hearing about the technical area of our work." Their son is pursuing a bachelor's degree in computer science at Lawrence Tech, while their daughter is in fourth grade. "I get the best of both in that I have wonderful IT tech support on the weekends, and all the joys of still having a child young enough to find delight in the world every day--especially if we're having pasta for dinner." Gandhi enjoys cooking and baking, RealRyderRevolution classes, and spending time with family, including parents and sisters who live close by. "We try to enjoy all the great activities in and around Detroit," she says. Published: Thu, Aug 2, 2012

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