Pietra is a member of the Public Finance and Economic Development Practice Group, where she focuses her practice on federal and state tax law in the areas of municipal law and state and local finance law, with particular emphasis on tax-exempt financings and corporate tax matters. In the area of public finance, Pietra has assisted with numerous tax-exempt bond financings and has experience conducting tax due diligence review and drafting tax documents required for tax-exempt bond closings.
As tax counsel, Pietra also provides tax advice relating to the structuring of financings to comply state and federal tax law, addressing ongoing arbitrage and rebate issues, determining qualified versus unqualified costs, and reviewing reissuance questions. Pietra represents clients in federal and New York state tax disputes from the audit level through the appellate process with respect to controversies involving taxes such as business tax, personal income tax, and sales and use tax.
In connection with her economic development practice, Pietra has advised municipalities at all stages of the annexation process, from planning to adoption to, in certain cases, defending municipal annexation actions. Pietra assists companies in obtaining tax savings through transactions with Industrial Development Agencies and Local Development Corporations, and provides counsel on the federal Opportunity Zones Program.
Prior to joining Harris Beach, Pietra was an associate in the office of a “Big 4” New York City accounting firm where she consulted individual and corporate clients on audit defense of New York state and New York City income and net worth based franchise taxes.
