Marietta Captive Insurance Attorney Matthew J. Howard | Marietta Estate Planning Lawyer | MIJS

Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele

“No question is stupid if you don’t know the answer.” Hello, my name is Matthew Howard. I am the senior partner of our tax department here at Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele. My practice comprises really first and foremost of heading up our tax department at MIJS. I graduated with a degree in law obviously, but also a master’s degree in tax so all I do in one form or another is taxation. I would say the three big areas are trust and estate work for clients, really all over the country, but primarily concentrated in Georgia. We do an awful lot of tax controversy work here at this firm where the Internal Revenue Service takes a position with either a corporation individual or partnership that we believe is unfair and untoward and not supportive by the law so we will help them and shepherd them through that entire process all the way through the administrative level at the Internal Revenue Service as well as US tax court if necessary. And the third area of our practice that I oversee is our captive insurance company practice. I am involved really exclusively in making certain that corporations that want to employ their own insurance company, known as a Captive Insurance company do it for the right reasons and they have a business purpose for doing it and not just a tax purpose. There has been a lot of litigation over in the 80s and 90s and a lot of guidance coming out of the Internal Revenue Service that has helped individuals and corporations who set up captives do them for the right reasons and it’s our job in this department, the tax department, that is to make sure that they are setting the individuals that create these and formed these and ran these are doing them for the right reasons. So anyone that knows me beyond probably 10 minutes will know I’m very passionate about two things. First and foremost about my faith. I have not been a man of faith most of my adult life, but over the last few years I did find my faith and I thank God for that, primarily. And the second thing I’m most passionate about is my family. I have a lovely wife, five children, and four dogs whom I adore. I am most appreciative of the opportunity to have worked at this firm for now going on 28 years, not just because it’s a great place to practice, the individuals are nice from Susan who greets people at our front desk to every staff member, the attorneys, very collegial place to work but first and foremost this is a place where we can express our faith and we think of the clients first; they absolutely come first. That is our mantra. We return phone calls, we return emails, and we truly put our interests second to our client base and I think that has served us well over the years. So I’ve shared with you my primary areas of concentration. They’re obviously subsets of that but if you do have any questions, please feel free to call.