Stephen L. "Steve" Phillips

Stephen L. "Steve" Phillips

Phillips Golden LLP

Recognized since 2013

Austin, Texas

Practice Areas

Tax Law

Spinning circle Big letter B

REAL | RELIABLE | CREATIVE | PRACTICAL

Steve is a tax and business attorney in Austin, Texas, USA, and a founding member of Phillips Golden LLP. He has been continuously Board Certified in Tax Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1994.

He collaborates with domestic and international entrepreneurs and investors to help them identify, grow, enjoy, and monetize their real and intangible assets, ideas, and resources, both here and abroad.

Past and current clients include cutting-edge high technology leaders, ranching and oil and gas magnates, inventors and purveyors of "low-tech" consumer products and services, prominent investors, celebrities, thought-leaders, and philanthropists.

His ideal client understands the need for a seasoned tax and business legal counsel with experience in sophisticated investment and entrepreneurial matters, a worldwide perspective, and a keen eye for the ever-present business and personal tax implications of an investment or business endeavor.

His firm's legal services are delivered in a comfortable and creative setting, without pretense, and free of artificial (and expensive) delivery methods, and with the most advanced technological tools available.

Typical representations include: Private investment and closely-held business analysis and structure; family holding company organization and reorganization; real estate investment and development; cross-border transactions (inbound and outbound) involving real estate, services, and goods; angel and other private equity and debt funding; business operations, dissolution, M&A, and other exits; individual and partnership taxation; executive and equity compensation issues, including deferred; liquidity event pre- and post-planning; repatriation of foreign assets from entities and trusts; worker classification planning and controversy; business & individual migration relocation to and from the U.S., and interstate; complex estate and asset planning.

Contact & Links

Location

  • Building Three, Suite 400
    1250 South Capital of Texas Highway
    Austin, TX 78746

Languages

  • English

Demographics

  • Sex: Male

Education

  • The University of Texas, J.D., graduated 1985
  • The University of Texas, BBA, graduated 1982

Bar Admissions

  • Texas, State Bar of Texas

Affiliations

  • United State Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals - Member
  • American Bar Association - Member (Taxation and Business Law Sections)
  • Austin Bar Association - Member
  • State Bar of Texas - Member (Taxation Section)
  • Texas Board of Legal Specialization - Board Certified (Tax Law)
  • United States District Court, Western District of Texas - Member
  • United States Tax Court - Member

Court Admissions

  • Western District of Texas Federal District Court
  • United States Tax Court
  • Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Recognized in The Best Lawyers® in America 2023 for work in:

  • Tax Law

Awards:

  • Named Best Austin Tax Lawyer in the Austin Business Journal (2005)
  • Recognized as “Outstanding Rotary Member” - North Austin Rotary Club (1995)

Tell us a little bit about your practice and what makes it unique.

For over 30 years I have wound my way through the Internal Revenue Code, and the tax laws of many domestic jurisdictions and foreign countries, in search of solutions to my clients' planning, structuring, operational, funding, and exit goals. With my accounting and law background and experience, I bring a holistic and multi-faceted lens to the table.

What common questions are you asked by clients, and what are your answers?

Common inquiries proposed to me are: What type of business entity should I use (or convert to) from a tax and legal perspective ? How can my labor and money partners properly structure our equity ownership agreements ? What are the implications of establishing a business outpost in another state, or in another country ? How can I compensate my key executives and other employees with equity or equity-like interests ?

What is most challenging about your area(s) of expertise?

The tax law is unquestionably one of the most rapidly changing and complex area of law. Many, many hours are devoted daily, weekly, and monthly to simple reading and studying new pronouncements from the IRS and other tax administrators, and the courts. New and signficant tax laws, such as the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, put an even more complex and challenging veneer over and already nearly overwhelming body of law.
Studying and digesting the tax law, gleaning the important and key features of that law, and then clearly communicating its application to my client and their investment or business transactions makes for long hours.

Your browser is not fully compatible with our automatic printer friendly formatting.

Please use the print button to print this profile page.

Spinning circle Big letter B