Hank draws on 50 years of government, teaching, and practice experience to advise clients on negotiating the federal tax legislative and regulatory process.
Profile
Harry L. (Hank) Gutman brings to IPB 50 years of tax experience and leadership that includes federal government Treasury and Congressional positions, full time teaching at major law schools, and law practice.
As Joint Committee Chief of Staff from 1991 through 1993, Hank was the primary nonpartisan adviser to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees concerning the technical, economic and revenue aspects of tax legislation. Hank also served as deputy tax legislative counsel in the Treasury Department Office of Tax Policy. Throughout his career, Hank has counseled major multinational corporations on various implications of tax legislative change. He has represented clients in legislative matters. Of particular current relevance, he has represented clients — individually and in coalitions — before both the Treasury and the IRS in the tax guidance process.
Hank also has extensive experience in estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes. While at the Treasury he was responsible for overseeing guidance and policy issues involving those taxes. He was the co-author of a wealth transfer tax casebook extensively used in law schools and was the reporter for an American Law Institute project on the generation-skipping tax. He has taught and written extensively in the area and has testified before Congress on estate tax issues.
Practice Areas
Education
Harvard University Law School, 1968, LL.B.
University College, Oxford England, 1965, B.A., Jurisprudence
Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 1963, A.B.
Bar & Court Admissions
District of Columbia
Massachusetts (inactive)
Pennsylvania (inactive)
U.S. Tax Court
Government Service
Joint Committee Chief of Staff
U.S. Department of Treasury, Deputy Tax Legislative Counsel
Academic Appointments
Temple University, Adjunct Professor of Law
University of Pennsylvania, Professor of Law
University of Virginia, Associate Professor of Law
Harvard Law School, Clinical Associate
Boston College Law School, Instructor
IRS/NYU Continuing Legal Education Program, Instructor
Memberships & Affiliations
American Bar Association Tax Section
American College of Tax Counsel
American Law Institute
Princeton Tax Club (New York)
American Bar Foundation
BRAVO! VAIL –Chair (2021)
Steering Committee - Yale Tax Reform Project
Honors & Awards
Best Lawyers in America 1997 - present
Treasury Exceptional Service Award
19th Mortimer H. Hess Memorial Lecture
5th Lawrence Neal Woodworth Memorial Lecture
2012 Erwin N. Griswold Lecture
2016 Frank & Rose Fogel Lecture
M.A. (Hon.), University of Pennsylvania
2024 Tax Policy Council - Pillar of Excellence
Experience
Representative Matters
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Tax Reform Options
Government of Bermuda, Report on Bermuda Tax System
News & Events
News
Publications
Speeches & Presentations
- October 2, 2023: "The Federal Deficit: Why Does It Matter & What Can Be Done?" Vail Symposium, Vail, CO
- April 19, 2022: Federal Tax Legislative Update — Dallas TEI Federal Tax Day
- March 29, 2022: Client Release —“Billionaire Tax” Faces Uncertain Prospects
- May 12, 2021: Testimony before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measure
- 1999 to Present: Over 1,000 presentations to corporate boards, audit committees, C-Suite executives, financial executives, Chief Tax Officers, corporate tax departments, and Tax Executives Institute (TEI) national, regional and local meetings. Topics included current international and domestic legislative activity relating to the taxation of business income, introduction to the tax legislative process, the basics of revenue estimating, the economic effects and policy implications of alternative methods of taxing business income, and the implications of international efforts to curb base erosion.
- 1984 to 1999: Congressional Testimony on Tax Aspects of Disclaimers (House Subcommittee on Oversight, 5/7/84), Minimum Taxes (Senate Finance Committee, 10/9/85), Generation-Skipping Transfers (House Ways & Means Committee, 10/2/84); Section 2036(c) (Senate Finance Committee, 5/17/89); Section 2036(c) (House Ways and Means Committee, 4/24/90); Section 2036(c) (Senate Finance Committee, 6/27/90); Tax Reform Proposals (Senate Budget Committee, 2/22//95); Estate and Gift Tax Reform (Senate Finance Committee, 3/19/97; Tax Simplification (House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, 5/25/99).
- ADDITIONAL PUBLICATIONS
- Transactions Between Partners and Partnerships, 31 N.Y.U. Fed. Tax Inst. 105 (1973)
- Minimizing Estate Taxes; The Effects of Inter Vivos Giving, 33 N.Y.U. Fed. Tax Inst. 131 (1975)
- Co-author with Donald C. Lubick, Treasury’s New Views on Carryover Basis, 118 Trusts and Estates 10 (1979)
- Effective Federal Tax Rates on Transfers of Wealth, 32 Nat. Tax J. 391 (1979)
- Federal Wealth Transfer Taxes after the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, 35 Nat. Tax J. 253 (1982)
- Reforming Federal Wealth Transfer Taxes After ERTA, 69 U. Va. L. Rev. 1183 (1983)
- The American Law Institute Trust Taxation Projects, 36 U.S.C. Major Tax Planning Inst. 28-1 (1984)
- Co-author with Frank E.A. Sander, Professor of Law, Harvard University, Tax Aspects of Divorce and Separation, Tax Management (1985)
- Co-author with the late Stanley S. Surrey, Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Professor of Law, Harvard University; Paul R. McDaniel, Professor of Law, Boston College Law School, Federal Wealth Transfer Taxation; Cases and Materials, Successor Edition, Foundation Press (1987)
- A Comment on The ABA Tax Section Task Force Report on Transfer Tax Restructuring, 41 Tax Lawyer 652 (1988)
- Where Does Congress Go From Here? Base, Timing, and Measurement Issues in the Transfer Tax (19th Mortimer H. Hess Memorial Lecture) 43 Record of the Assoc. of the Bar of the City of N.Y. 778 (1988)
- A Practitioner’s Perspective in Perspective: A Reply to Mr. Aucutt, 42 Tax Lawyer 351 (1989)
- Homes and Taxes, CCH Tax Transactions Library (1989)
- Co-author with Pam H. Schneider, A Preliminary Analysis of Chapter 14 Of the Internal Revenue Code and Its Effect on Family Businesses, 43 U.S.C. Tax Institute (1991)
- Taxing Transactions Between Exempt Parents and Their Affiliates, 87 Tax Notes 1081 (1999)
- Reflections on the Process of Enacting Tax Law (5th Annual Laurence Neal Woodworth Memorial Lecture, 86 Tax Notes 93 (2000)
- Anti-Avoidance Rules and the Role of the Judiciary, 5 International Taxation 407 (2011)
- The Role of the Tax Advisor in the Changing World of Global Tax Administration: The 2012 Erwin N. Griswold Lecture Before the American College of Tax Counsel, 65 Tax Lawyer 461 (2012)
- Tax Reform—Broadening the Income Tax Base, 7 International Taxation 525 (2012)
- How to Think About Real Tax Reform, Tax Notes, August 6, 2012 at 695
- The Prospects for Business Tax Reform in the United States, 8 International Taxation 587 (2013)
- Ben Cardin Holds the Keys to the Kingdom: Where is the Business Community?, Tax Notes, April 20, 2015
- How the Election May Affect the Taxation of Business Income, Journal of Accountancy, January 2017
- Gain in Marketable Securities Should Be Taxed at Death, 154 Tax Notes 1437 (March 13, 2017)
- The Saga of Unfulfilled Business Income Tax Reform, 89 Temple L. Rev. 267 (2017)
- Exit of Dana Trier a Loss for the Tax System, Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2018
- Net Operating Loss Carrybacks Are Not Tax Subsidies, Tax Notes, June 22, 2020
- Taxing Gains at Death, 170 Tax Notes Federal 215, January 11, 2021