Philip S. "Phil" Olsen

Phil is a tax attorney focusing on state and local tax consulting and litigation. He has over 25 years’ experience litigating and resolving major tax controversies before courts and administrative boards. While he has a successful track record of litigating cases, he has also successfully and discretely resolved hundreds of cases short of trial. His experience spans just about every area of state and local tax, including corporate income, sales and use, personal income, estate, real and personal property, and unclaimed property. In addition to advocating for taxpayers on state level taxes, Phil represents property owners and municipalities in local property tax appeals.

Before entering private practice, Phil served as a senior trial attorney and litigation supervisor for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue where he represented the Department in many landmark tax cases. This experience gives him an insider perspective of the issues his clients face.

Representative Matters Include:

• Reduced a $30+ million sales and use tax assessment against a national investment company to a nominal amount by demonstrating that the Department of Revenue’s sampling methodology was flawed.
• Convinced Department of Revenue auditors that several major entertainment corporations were not unitary with each other and, therefore, not required to participate in a combined filing.
• Successfully represented numerous high-net-worth individuals who changed their domicile from Massachusetts to other states.
• Defended a national pharmaceutical company against income, sales and property tax assessments.
• Obtained a protective order in Massachusetts Superior Court prohibiting the Department of Revenue from obtaining confidential customer information of a national distributor.
• Negotiated local property tax reductions for owners of commercial, industrial, energy and hospitality properties.