Douglas Turner Coats, Counsel
Doug is Chair of the firm's Tax practice group and has significant experience in the planning and structuring of sophisticated business and tax transactions for companies involving corporations and flow-through entities (including LLPs, LLCs and S corporations). He has advised and represented clients in connection with the sale of their companies, in the form of both asset and equity transactions, and has also represented clients in business acquisitions. Doug also provides third-party opinion letters.
He advises clients of all sizes with respect to various types of tax matters. Doug has also represented individual and business taxpayers in matters before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state taxing authorities.
Doug is an integral part of the firm's Energy & Environmental practice group where his work includes:
- Drafting, reviewing and negotiating solar power purchase agreements (PPAs), including issues related to appropriation of funds by governmental entities;
- Drafting, reviewing and negotiating payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements with respect to Maryland property taxes; and
- Analyzing tax issues, including issues related to the transfer of property by electricity generators to public utilities under IRS Notice 2016-36.
Doug joined Gordon Feinblatt in November 2015. Prior to joining the firm, Doug was Counsel with Rosenberg Martin Greenberg in Baltimore and an Associate with Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP in Wilmington, DE, and Venable, LLP in Baltimore. Prior to practicing law, Doug was a senior tax consultant with Deloitte & Touche, LLP in Baltimore.
Representative Matters
Represented Indalex Holdings, a U.S. aluminum-extrusion company, in connection with the $150 million sale of its assets to Sapa Holdings, a Sweden-based aluminum extrusion company, in a complex transaction that involved approval from the U.S. bankruptcy court, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, due to anti-trust issues that arose from a Hart-Scott-Rodino filing. Indalex had six plants in the U.S., employed 1,800 workers, and had annual sales of $900 million.
Represented Trade Secret and its affiliates, a retail seller of hair-care and beauty products, in connection with the sale of substantially all of their assets and the dissolution of their corporate entities, which involved approval from the U.S. bankruptcy court. Prior to the sale, Trade Secret operated several hundred beauty salons in shopping malls.
Represented Coastal Supply Company, Inc., a Delaware-based soil and mulch manufacturer, in connection the acquisition by Harvest Power, a Massachusetts-based leader in producing renewable energy, soil and mulch products from organic materials, of one hundred percent of Coastal Supply Company, Inc.
Represented a Delaware-based leader in the sale of durable home medical equipment in connection a sale of substantially all of the equity interests in the company.
Represented Lang Holdings, Inc. and certain of its affiliates, a leading supplier of calendars, greeting cards and stationery, in connection with the $25 million sale of substantially all of its assets.
Testified as an expert witness before the Delaware Court of Chancery with respect to partnership tax provisions of an LLC operating agreement in the matter of Borin v. Rasta Thomas, LLC, (5344-CC, 2010).
Honors
Named to Best Lawyers in America® for Tax Law, 2025
News
Professional and Civic Involvement
Member, American Bar Association
Adjunct Professor, Stevenson University, 2013 to present
Publications and Lectures
- Accountable Care Organization Denied Tax-Exempt Status
- Maryland Laws Update 2024
- Maryland Laws Update 2023
- Gordon Feinblatt’s COVID-19 Information Hub
- Maryland Laws Update 2021
- What Businesses Need to Know About Maryland’s RELIEF Act
- Relating to Real Estate: Hot Topics 2020 Webinar
- Deducting Maryland Taxes
- Maryland Laws Update 2020
- Relating to Real Estate - June 2020
- Opportunity Zones in 2020
- PPP Loan and Other Coronavirus Tax Benefits
- Maryland Legal Alert - April 2020
- IRS Provides Guidance for Employers to Obtain Advance Payment of Coronavirus Refundable Tax Credits
- Social Security Recipients Will Automatically Receive Coronavirus Stimulus Payments
- Individual and Business Tax Provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act
- IRS Issues Updated Tax Relief Due to Coronavirus Pandemic
- IRS Issues Tax Payment Relief Due to Coronavirus Pandemic
- Tax Planning During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Don’t Forget to Wash Your Hands and Don’t Forget the ‘Wash Sale’ Rules
- Maryland Bill Would Expand Sales and Use Tax to Include More Services
- Circuit Court says Goodwill Is Subject to Recordation and Transfer Taxes
- Relating to Real Estate - November 2019
- Relating to Real Estate: Hot Topics Breakfast & Seminar 2019
- Exploring Opportunities with Opportunity Zones – Understanding the Benefits of New Internal Revenue Code Section 1400Z
- Internal Revenue Code Section 754 and Related Issues
- IRS Finalizes 199A Rental Real Estate Safe Harbor
- Maryland Laws Update 2019
- Decoding Section 199A For Your Clients
- Landlords Should Get Active and Seek the 199A Safe Harbor
- New Rules for Entities Taxed as Partnerships and New Partnership Tax Return (Form 1065)
- Opportunity Zones 101: Everything You Need to Know About Baltimore's OZs
- IRS Issues Regulations for Opportunity Zones
- Section 199A Income Tax Deduction: A Tale of Three Chairs
- Relating to Real Estate Breakfast & Seminar
- Opportunity Zones - Exploring Opportunities with Opportunity Zones
- Internal Revenue Code Section 199A
- The Jobs and Tax Act of 2017 and Real Estate
- Understanding the Mechanics of the 199A Proposed Aggregation Rules
- OK for O-Zone
- 199A Proposed Regulations Confirm Disparate Treatment between Different Entity Types
- Maryland Laws Update 2018
- Maryland Legal Alert - July 2018
- Online Sellers May Need to Collect State Sales Tax Even Without a Physical Presence in a State
- Seminar for Maryland Physicians: Taxes, Two Room ASCs and Telehealth
- Some Doctors May Qualify for a 199A Deduction
- A Pilot Agreement Can Take The Sting Out Of Personal Property Taxes
- More Jobs for Marylanders Act of 2017
- A PILOT Agreement Can Take the Sting Out of Personal Property Taxes
- Dirty Real Estate Talk: Environmental Issues That Can Save or Cost You $$
- Lengthening Contracts with Tax-Exempt Entities
- Bottom Dollar Guarantees – It Appears That The Good Times Are Over For Good
- Autumn is the Season for Harvesting Tax Losses; Taking Advantage of Code Section 165 to Recognize a Loss for a Partnership Interest, 2016 MACPA Advanced Tax Institute Conference
- Private Use of Tax-Exempt Financed Projects
- Maryland Laws Update 2016
- U.S. Tax Court Again Focuses on Reasonable Compensation
- Treasury Department Clarifies That Partners of a Partnership Owning a Disregarded Entity Are Not Employees of The Disregarded Entity
- All Is Good With Bad Boy Guaranties
- Relating to Real Estate - April 2016
- Bad Boy (Guaranties), What You Gonna Do?
- C Corp Reasonable Compensation
- Not So Fast – Consider the Income Tax Consequences Before Using an Entity Conversion Statute
- TREASURY TREMORS: The Ground is Shifting with Respect to the Allocation of Partnership Liabilities to Partners
- Operating a Professional Services Firm as a C Corporation? – The Tax Court Provides a Reminder to be Careful about Reasonable Compensation
- Not So Fast – Considering the Consequences Associated with MD’s New Entity Conversion Statutes
Teams
Business
EMERGE
Energy & Environmental
Financial Services
Health Care
Mergers & Acquisitions
Real Estate
Tax
Education
J.D.,
magna cum laude,
University of Baltimore School of Law,
1999
B.A.,
Loyola College,
1989
Court Admissions
U.S. Tax Court
Bar Admissions
Maryland,
1999
Delaware,
2009