Douglas Turner Coats, Counsel

Contact

dcoats@gfrlaw.com
410-576-4002

Teams

Business
EMERGE
Energy & Environmental
Financial Services
Health Care
Mergers & Acquisitions
Private Client Services
Real Estate
Tax

Doug ensures that his clients take full advantage of tax saving opportunities.

I believe in explaining complex tax issues in a way that clients can understand them.

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.

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).

Professional and Civic Involvement

Member, American Bar Association

Adjunct Professor, Stevenson University, 2013 to present

Publications and Lectures

  • Gordon Feinblatt’s COVID-19 Information Hub, March 24, 2022
  • Maryland Laws Update 2021, July 2, 2021
  • What Businesses Need to Know About Maryland’s RELIEF Act, February 18, 2021
  • Relating to Real Estate: Hot Topics 2020 Webinar, October 26, 2020
  • Deducting Maryland Taxes, September 15, 2020
  • Maryland Laws Update 2020, July 6, 2020
  • Relating to Real Estate - June 2020, June 16, 2020
  • Opportunity Zones in 2020, June 16, 2020
  • PPP Loan and Other Coronavirus Tax Benefits, April 20, 2020
  • Maryland Legal Alert - April 2020, April 20, 2020
  • IRS Provides Guidance for Employers to Obtain Advance Payment of Coronavirus Refundable Tax Credits, April 2, 2020
  • Social Security Recipients Will Automatically Receive Coronavirus Stimulus Payments, April 2, 2020
  • Individual and Business Tax Provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, March 31, 2020
  • IRS Issues Updated Tax Relief Due to Coronavirus Pandemic, March 22, 2020
  • IRS Issues Tax Payment Relief Due to Coronavirus Pandemic, March 19, 2020
  • Tax Planning During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Don’t Forget to Wash Your Hands and Don’t Forget the ‘Wash Sale’ Rules, March 17, 2020
  • Maryland Bill Would Expand Sales and Use Tax to Include More Services, February 21, 2020
  • Circuit Court says Goodwill Is Subject to Recordation and Transfer Taxes, November 21, 2019
  • Relating to Real Estate - November 2019, November 21, 2019
  • Relating to Real Estate: Hot Topics Breakfast & Seminar 2019, November 14, 2019
  • Exploring Opportunities with Opportunity Zones – Understanding the Benefits of New Internal Revenue Code Section 1400Z, November 13, 2019
  • Internal Revenue Code Section 754 and Related Issues, November 11, 2019
  • IRS Finalizes 199A Rental Real Estate Safe Harbor, October 1, 2019
  • Maryland Laws Update 2019, July 3, 2019
  • Decoding Section 199A For Your Clients, February 21, 2019
  • Landlords Should Get Active and Seek the 199A Safe Harbor, January 31, 2019
  • New Rules for Entities Taxed as Partnerships and New Partnership Tax Return (Form 1065), January 23, 2019
  • Opportunity Zones 101: Everything You Need to Know About Baltimore's OZs, January 22, 2019
  • IRS Issues Regulations for Opportunity Zones, January 3, 2019
  • Section 199A Income Tax Deduction: A Tale of Three Chairs, January 3, 2019
  • Relating to Real Estate Breakfast & Seminar, November 15, 2018
  • Opportunity Zones - Exploring Opportunities with Opportunity Zones, November 14, 2018
  • Internal Revenue Code Section 199A, November 12, 2018
  • The Jobs and Tax Act of 2017 and Real Estate, October 9, 2018
  • Gordon Feinblatt Forms EMERGE Team , October 1, 2018
  • Understanding the Mechanics of the 199A Proposed Aggregation Rules, September 12, 2018
  • OK for O-Zone, September 4, 2018
  • 199A Proposed Regulations Confirm Disparate Treatment between Different Entity Types, August 21, 2018
  • Maryland Laws Update 2018, July 16, 2018
  • Maryland Legal Alert - July 2018, July 9, 2018
  • Online Sellers May Need to Collect State Sales Tax Even Without a Physical Presence in a State, June 21, 2018
  • Seminar for Maryland Physicians: Taxes, Two Room ASCs and Telehealth, May 1, 2018
  • Some Doctors May Qualify for a 199A Deduction, March 28, 2018
  • A Pilot Agreement Can Take The Sting Out Of Personal Property Taxes, June 19, 2017
  • More Jobs for Marylanders Act of 2017, May 4, 2017
  • A PILOT Agreement Can Take the Sting Out of Personal Property Taxes, February 17, 2017
  • Dirty Real Estate Talk: Environmental Issues That Can Save or Cost You $$, January 25, 2017
  • Lengthening Contracts with Tax-Exempt Entities, January 10, 2017
  • Bottom Dollar Guarantees – It Appears That The Good Times Are Over For Good, November 21, 2016
  • 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, November 17, 2016
  • Private Use of Tax-Exempt Financed Projects, November 14, 2016
  • Charitable Contribution of Real Estate, MSBA Commercial Real Estate Discussion Group Meeting, October 11, 2016
  • Maryland Laws Update 2016, June 9, 2016
  • U.S. Tax Court Again Focuses on Reasonable Compensation, May 18, 2016
  • Treasury Department Clarifies That Partners of a Partnership Owning a Disregarded Entity Are Not Employees of The Disregarded Entity, May 4, 2016
  • All Is Good With Bad Boy Guaranties, April 28, 2016
  • Relating to Real Estate - April 2016, April 14, 2016
  • Bad Boy (Guaranties), What You Gonna Do?, April 7, 2016
  • C Corp Reasonable Compensation, March 23, 2016
  • Not So Fast – Consider the Income Tax Consequences Before Using an Entity Conversion Statute, March 20, 2016
  • TREASURY TREMORS: The Ground is Shifting with Respect to the Allocation of Partnership Liabilities to Partners, March 20, 2016
  • Operating a Professional Services Firm as a C Corporation? – The Tax Court Provides a Reminder to be Careful about Reasonable Compensation, February 17, 2016
  • Not So Fast – Considering the Consequences Associated with MD’s New Entity Conversion Statutes, December 1, 2013

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