Manager Management
Resume:
JOHN J. FICARA
CPA, JD, LLM
Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046 **********@*********.***
CORPORATE TAX EXPERT
Corporate Tax Counsel with strong analytical skills and extremely well developed interpersonal,
communication and leadership skills, has interacted with hundreds of internal business group
representatives, external business partners and advisors, and governmental agencies. Responsibility for
tax optimization on projects has resulted in dollar tax savings aggregating hundreds of millions. Licensed
Certified Public Accountant (NY) and Attorney at Law (NY & NJ).
CORE COMPETENCIES: Leading Federal and State legislative/regulatory monitoring and advocacy
efforts; tax planning for the Nafta region, including effective tax rate reduction; tax representation on
transactional projects, including acquisitions, divestitures, mergers and joint ventures; management of
IRS audits; coordination of Intercompany Transfer Pricing; primary tax liaison to senior corporate
management and business group leaders; FAS 109 & FIN 48 analysis and preparation of support for tax
reserves; Sarbanes-Oxley compliance implementation testing; Value Based Management.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Corporate Tax Counsel
Managed staff of 12, including 5 Tax Attorneys/CPAs.
BASF CORPORATION (Florham Park, NJ) 1982 - 2009
German-based chemical manufacturing company with global facilities. Annual sales of 50 billion Euros
globally, including $20 billion in the US.
Successfully defended IRS challenge to deductibility of multi-year royalty payments to German
parent avoiding taxes, interest and penalties in excess of $100M: Led effort to gather
documentation and formulate position on this 2-year project as it progressed through the IRS Appeals
division and ultimately reached docketed status in the US Tax Court.
Substantial tax reserves were reversed into income (e.g., $58M reversed in 2007 for audit years
2003 and 2004) as no significant unfavorable adjustments by the IRS were sustained:
Successfully defended BASF position against numerous IRS inquiries, including many challenges
from IRS specialists and counsel.
Managed tax planning function resulting in dollar tax optimization aggregating hundreds of
millions. Proper tax planning avoided over $600M of taxes in regard to a $5B acquisition which
required substantial post-acquisition restructuring: Early involvement in business group
transactions (acquisitions and divestitures) assured tax optimization of consummated transactions.
The global Value Based Management (VBM) initiative created a need to ensure all 80 Treasury
employees were trained in the basics of VBM and that “Practice Groups” (PG) were established
for major initiatives. PG efforts enhanced LIFO calculation resulting in $47M of tax benefits:
Conducted training presentations for the entire Treasury division as well as several workshops for PG
leaders. Total of 36 PGs were initiated and objectives were accomplished by target date.
JOHN J. FICARA PAGE TWO
BASF CORPORATION (continued)
Advocated on behalf of BASF for Federal and State legislative/regulatory purposes, which has
resulted in adoption of enhanced research tax credit provisions doubling BASF's tax benefits to
$7M per year: Recommendations made have been incorporated into many of the final legislative
and regulatory proposals. For example, testimony to NJ Legislative Committees, regarding
potentially discriminatory international treaty override legislation, resulted in adoption of BASF
proposed treaty exception language.
Optimized tax impact of change-in-control payments arising from an acquisition, resulting in
reduction of cash gross-up payments by $11M, and increase in tax deductible portion of
payments by $26M: Coordinated efforts to gather data needed to assess the value of key executive
non-compete agreements and further document basis for minimizing gross-up payments and non-
deductible portion of payments.
Implemented strategy to preserve potential tax benefit of $60M following a Canadian
Amalgamation which would have resulted in the loss of $200M stock tax basis: Worked with
outside advisors to develop strategy that would accomplish the business purpose without loss of the
stock tax basis.
Optimized tax impact of purchase price allocation for an acquisition which resulted in 70% of
the purchase price being tax deductible - tax benefits of $130M: Negotiated the methodology
and process for arriving at allocation that addressed concerns of both parties, was supported by
objective criteria, and was consistent with third party valuation.
Reduced effective tax rate by establishing a Puerto Rico structure resulting in 4% tax on
income attributed to PR and ability to repatriate net after-tax income to German parent with
no additional tax. Resulting tax savings - $1M per year: Negotiated with PR government, a
favorable tax rate on taxable income attributable to PR branch, with minimum obligation to create
local jobs and infrastructure.
Previously Audit/Tax Manager for ERNST & YOUNG.
EDUCATION
LLM (Taxation), New York University Graduate Law School (New York, NY)
JD, Fordham University Law School (New York, NY)
MS (Tax), Long Island University/CW Post (Brookville, NY)
BS (Accounting), Long Island University/CW Post (Brookville, NY)
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Chemistry Council Tax Team
PhRMA Tax Committee – chaired State Tax sub-committee
Adjunct Professor of Tax – Fairleigh Dickinson University (Graduate Program)
Contact this candidate