Bob Duran is a partner in the firm’s tax, employee benefits and executive compensation practice group. For more than 25 years, he has advised clients about a wide range of business and tax matters, including taxation of cross-border transactions, with an emphasis on Mexico and Latin America.
For those investing or expanding operations across borders, Bob has advised on the tax-efficient use of pass-through and hybrid entities, complex capital structures (e.g., debt and preferred equity), treaties, tax credits and arrangements affecting the timing and character of income and deductions, with emphasis on structuring offshore transactions and operations to minimize the effects of Subpart F and other U.S. anti-deferral regimes, as well as withholding taxes.
Bob has also advised non-U.S. individuals and entities entering the United States on issues such as whether to operate through a branch or a subsidiary, how to capitalize the branch or subsidiary (i.e., debt or equity) and how to minimize U.S. withholding and branch taxes through careful structuring and tax treaties, and planning for related-party transactions. He has represented clients from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico and the U.K., among other countries.
Bob also has substantial experience in handling a wide range of business transactions, including taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions, corporate buyouts and restructurings, joint ventures, and partnership, LLC and S corporation transactions.
Previously, Bob was Vice President-Legal and Compliance at GroupEx Financial Corporation, a money transfer company serving the U.S.-to-Mexico/Latin America corridor. In that role, he directed the general counsel’s office and the compliance department, which was responsible for anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
Bob is also an adjunct professor of law at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, where he teaches Corporate and Individual Income Tax, and is a presenter at the Hawaii Tax Institute, lecturing on international tax subjects.