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Michael Kosnitzky

Partner
Miami & New York

Partner, Miami & New York

T: +1.786.913.4884
T: +1.212.858.1002
T: +1.786.913.4884
T: +1.212.858.1002

Areas of Focus

Incredibly sharp ... an excellent tax lawyer ... a consummate adviser.
—Client comments in Chambers USA

Mike Kosnitzky, co-leader of the firm’s Private Client & Family Office practice, advises some of the world's most well-respected individuals, families and privately held businesses, using a holistic risk-assessment approach to the law.

Mike is a highly decorated attorney, having received recognition in Chambers High Net Worth, Chambers USA, Legal 500 and Best Lawyers, as well as recognition as a Trust and Estates Trailblazer by the National Law Journal for his focus on where IRS policy is going and not necessarily where it stands today.

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His tax-minimizing strategies guide financial and strategic buyers in complex taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions; privately held businesses in estate tax-efficient succession planning; private investment funds in their choice of jurisdictions and structures; wealthy families in generational real estate income tax and estate tax planning; individuals and family offices regarding artwork and collectables; and ultra-high-net-worth individuals in U.S. and foreign trust matters.

Mike, who is also a certified public accountant, is a prolific writer on diverse tax topics and the co-author of two treatises on S corporations: The S Corporation: Planning and Operation and The S Corporation Answer Book, both Wolters Kluwer publications.

Representative Experience

  • Advised Albanian conglomerate Kastrati Group on the purchase of the SLS Brickell hotel in Miami for $53.5 million. Kastrati purchased the 124-key hotel at 1300 South Miami Avenue in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. The deal breaks down to approximately $431,500 per room. The purchase marks the first in the United States for Kastrati.
  • Launched new family offices for several high-net-worth individuals in the global entertainment and corporate spheres, designing tax-optimal structures to accommodate changing circumstances.
  • Represents numerous non-U.S. individuals and families in purchases of real estate and other assets in the United States.

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  • Counsels owners of companies planning initial public stock offerings and other liquidity transactions, and develops strategies to manage assets in advance of disposition.
  • Regularly advises private equity and other fund managers on manager compensation structuring.
  • Regularly handles transactions involving private aircraft, helicopter and yacht ownership.
  • Advises family offices and family foundations on all tax aspects relating to the clients' investments, charitable giving and estate planning.
  • Advises art collectors in establishing galleries and museums.
  • Advises family offices in the restructuring of their operations with respect to recent tax law changes under the Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).
  • Advises Chinese private clients on optimizing estate and income tax planning in light of their status as dual Chinese and U.S. nationals, and on the future IPOs of their companies.
  • Advising the board of directors of a nonprofit organization focusing on civic, social, and other activities, including tax advice related to establishing a special committee to oversee any potential allegations and claims against the organization and its predecessor organizations, and with respect to the federal and state tax implications affecting the organization’s tax-exempt status as they relate to these claims.
  • Advising the foundation of a famous Japanese travel journalist involving a resolution of the deceased’s intentions, because of the conflict between Japanese and Liechtenstein law and the overall tax implications of these determinations.
  • Serving as lead family office counsel on numerous high-dollar-impact issues, including in resolving an aircraft and racing team activity-related audit with the IRS.
  • Advising a private client in correcting the existing succession and estate structure, incorrectly created by another law firm, that failed to embody the client’s actual estate planning wishes and intentions, while building in additional flexibility and paying careful attention to treating different members of the client’s blended family equitably.
  • Assisted a charitable foundation that supports the developmentally disabled in its corporate restructuring and establishment of operations and management in Florida from NYC, as well as recurring general counsel advice, permitting it to continue to further its charitable purposes by restructuring its operations in a more efficient manner without running afoul of complex tax rules that could have resulted in a punitive excise tax.
  • Represented a founder and principal of a large website in China, prior to the IPO of the company in order to optimize the client’s estate and income tax planning, which was complicated because of the client’s dual Chinese and U.S. citizenship and the need to coalesce the client’s desire to maintain their relationship and contacts with both countries.
  • Advised two video game creators and business partners following a significant liquidity event on their tax advantaged redomiciling from New York to Florida, and on the creation of a dual family-family office structure. We also advised on the tax deferred monetization of a portion of a restricted stock consideration received in connection with the liquidity event. We helped to create a new platform for the clients to create, acquire, organize, operate, commercially exploit and monetize new and existing investments and businesses in a tax, family and managerially efficient structure both collectively and individually for the two families. Our advice is expected to result in multimillion-dollar initial and continuing income and estate tax savings and efficiencies.
  • Advised a client, which was majority controlled by a legendary hotelier, in the corporate restructuring of the client’s various real estate and hotel properties in order to facilitate minority equity ownership by important, trusted and long-standing employees and potential third-party minority investment. We were also retained to assist in tax related matters for two nonprofits affiliated with the hotelier. Our representation permitted the owner of these iconic hotel properties and associated other real estate to be able to retain the properties in private hands rather than being forced to sell control to a large institutional hotel or resort company.
  • Advised a legendary hotelier though his family office in the legal aspects of the refinancing of a large-scale architectural art piece.
  • Advised the owner of a media and events company, which is also the controlling owner of a marketplace in the architecture and design industry, on the utilization of certain operating losses against income from other business and investment activities by restructuring the various entities from a brother-sister structure to a parent-subsidiary structure. Our advice also included planning related to the Excess Business Loss Rule as modified by the CARES Act, allowing the client to utilize net-operating losses in a manner that created much greater cash flow for the family business and enhanced the value of the business.
  • Advised an Israeli citizen, former founder and CEO of a commercial real estate company, on tax planning regarding a settlement agreement with former company and non-compete and other payments related to client’s separation from the company and associated restructuring of the client’s existing family office to achieve, among other things, multijurisdictional income and estate tax efficiencies and generational wealth succession, resulting in initial multimillion-dollar income tax savings, as well as expected annual multimillion-dollars income tax savings and estate tax savings using discount valuation methods, among others.
  • Counselled a high-net-worth entrepreneurial individual on state sales tax, federal and state income tax and aviation law regarding the joint purchase of a private jet aircraft with two close business associates. Our advice covered combined planning under the federal tax law, various state sales and use tax laws, and FAA private aircraft ownership and operating rules, which are often inconsistent with one another.
  • Advised private client with respect to the use of a perpetual Wyoming trust in connection with the corporate restructuring of a portion of the family’s international business entities. Legal advice included estate and gift planning, domestic tax law, international tax law, trust law, asset protection law and general trust governance, involving the interplay of U.S., Israeli, Dutch and UK tax laws.
  • Analyzed the tax consequences of unwinding several valuable family real estate partnerships and S Corporations that were the subject of multi-year litigation for a family that owns a portfolio of over 200 buildings worth in excess of $7.0 billion. Our advice included tax planning that allowed the parties to settle the outstanding litigation, avoiding significant legal fees associated with a trial.
  • Advised a private client with respect to a multibillion-dollar redevelopment project that is expected to ultimately include residential rental housing, commercial space and retail properties as part of the Qualified Opportunity Zone program.
  • Advised a private client regarding her closely held business, including restructuring of the various related affiliates and subsidiaries from a tax, estate planning, asset protection and anonymity planning standpoint with consideration of the TCJA, and regarding the client’s extensive collection of classic automobiles.
  • Advised a private client with respect to his donation of real property to a charitable foundation to be used in perpetuity as a park and naming rights associated with that donation.
  • Advises several investment funds on succession planning and restructuring.

Professional Highlights

  • Described in Chambers High Net Worth 2022 as “an amazing talent” who is “intelligent, extremely responsive and diligent.”
  • Recognized as one of the nation’s most respected and creative tax lawyers by Chambers USA, Chambers High Net Worth, The Legal 500 U.S. and Best Lawyers (published by BL Rankings LLC) Tax Law (2010 – 2025); Corporate Law (2011 – 2025); Trust & Estates (2021 – 2025).
  • Co-author of two treatises on S corporations. The S Corporation: Planning and Operation and The S Corporation Answer Book, both Wolters Kluwer publications.

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  • Speaking Engagements
    • “S Corp Redemptions: Characterization, Tax Consequences, Application of Sections 302 and 301,” Strafford Webinar (May 11, 2023)
    • “Key Tax and Non-Tax Considerations When Funding Family Offices in the USA,” Chambers Expert Focus Podcast (November 15, 2022)
    • “Haute Lawyer Network Presents Exclusive Webinar with Michael Kosnitzky,” Haute Lawyer Webinar (September 14, 2021)
    • “Practical Tax Strategies for Real Estate Deal Structuring and Implementation,” Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants Webinar (April 30, 2021)
    • “The ABCs of Forming and Operating Family Offices in 2021,”Haute Lawyer Webinar (January 21, 2021)
    • "The Cusp Of Change,” Haute Lawyer Webinar (October 8, 2020)
    • “Tax Treatment of Airplane Purchases: Maximizing Deductions for Business Aircraft Expenditures,” Strafford Webinar (June 2, 2020)
    • “Pre-U.S. Immigration Tax Planning Using Insurance Wrappers and Using Life Insurance to Mitigate the Throwback Tax,” Estate Planning Council of Greater Miami’s 8th Annual Estate Planning Symposium (February 11, 2020)
    • “Have the Reforms Boosted the Market? Accelerated Depreciation Versus 1031,” Corporate Jet Investor Conference Miami 2018 (November 14, 2018)
    • Lecturer for the University of Miami, the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management National Wealth Planning Directors, the Mortgage Bankers Association of New York, the American Arbitration Association and the American Health Lawyers Association

Education

  • J.D., University of Miami School of Law, 1983
    magna cum laude; Graduated First in Class, Wesley Alba Sturges Award

    B.B.A., Accounting, University of Miami, 1979
    magna cum laude

Admissions

  • Florida

    District of Columbia

    New York

    Colorado

Michael's Insights

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