Gary Sprague
Born in California in 1955. After receiving his B.A., with honors, from Stanford University in 1997 and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard University in 1981, he became an attorney at Baker McKenzie. Gary focuses his practice on international corporate tax planning and advice, tax controversies and tax issues affecting software, high technology and digital enterprise companies. Mr. Sprague was one of five business representatives selected to participate in the OECD Technical Advisory Group ("TAG") on Tax Treaty Characterisation Issues Arising from E-Commerce, and was elected chair of the business representatives on the TAG. He also was appointed to serve as the business co-chair on the Technical Advisory Group on Monitoring the Application of Existing Treaty Norms for the Taxation of Business Profits. He was the Co-General Reporter for the main subject Taxation of Income Derived from Electronic Commerce for the International Fiscal Association 2001 Congress and was the General Reporter for the main subject Big Data and Tax – domestic and international taxation of data driven business for the International Fiscal Association 2022 Congress. He is a co-author of BNA Tax Management Portfolio No. 555-2nd, Federal Taxation of Software and Digital Transactions. He has published over 110 articles in various journals, including the Georgia Law Review, the George Mason Law Review, and the Tax Management International Journal. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.Courses:
Tax Planning in the U.S.
The course will address the major US tax issues implicated in cross-border trade and investment, from both an inbound and outbound perspective. Students will apply the rules through preparing planning responses to hypothetical case studies. Outbound issues will include the character of transactions, source of income rules, foreign tax credit, operations though non-US branches, anti-deferral rules, and the foreign derived intangible income rules. Inbound issues will include taxation at source on passive income, the nexus rules for direct taxation, the attribution of profits to that nexus, taxation of real property interests, and anti-base erosion rules. Other topics will include residence definitions of individuals and entities, the US transfer pricing regulations, allocation and apportionment of expenses, tax treaty interpretation, and US international tax policy positions. The case studies will include in particular cases involving software and digital transactions.
Back to list