Our Attorneys

Position: Attorney
E-Mail swilley@simmonsperrine.com
115 3rd Street SE, Suite 1200
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401-1266

Phone 319-366-7641
Fax 319-366-1917
vCard

Ms. Willey joined Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman, PLC in 2008. She is a member of the firm’s estate planning, corporate, tax, real estate and banking teams. She has assisted clients in structuring their estate plans, including generational transfers. As part of the Estate Planning Team, Ms. Willey works on complex tax planning matters involving international estate planning, incorporating recent judicial developments affecting the use of entities to transfer ownership in property, valuation issues affecting estate planning and disclosure to protect a taxpayer’s filing position. She has also advised members of the firm with respect to new developments on defined value clauses in estate plans and international grantor trusts.

Ms. Willey works with clients on corporate structuring, mergers and the creation of special entities to achieve business and family objectives. She has also helped clients with succession planning by creating, merging, dissolving and amending partnerships and LLCs. She assists clients in transferring assets into the appropriate entity in a tax sensitive manner to achieve family objectives. She has drafted trusts, wills and other dispositive documents to help clients meet their goals.

With her understanding of the IRS, she has assisted clients in resolving tax controversies and facilitated conferences with the IRS National Office on tax interpretations. She has assisted corporate fiduciaries with multi-year tax filing issues and worked with IRS Appeals to favorably resolve tax, penalty and interest assessments.

As part of the firm’s tax controversy team, Ms. Willey has worked with the IRS National Office to resolve a tax-exempt organization’s excise tax and unrelated business income tax exposure that potentially affected contributors and the foundation.

Ms. Willey has formed new tax-exempt entities, drafted governance documents and requested tax-exemption from the IRS on behalf of clients. Ms. Willey has counseled nonprofit clients on unrelated business taxable income issues, tax issues associated with Form 990 and financial statement disclosure associated with tax return positions.

Early in her career, Ms. Willey served as Tax Counsel to United States Senator Charles Grassley. Ms. Willey has retained many Washington DC legislative connections and assists clients with federal legislative issues. In the afternoon of the Midwestern floods, Ms. Willey assisted clients in identifying federal and state financing.

During her tenure on Capitol Hill, Ms. Willey also provided technical assistance to Mr. Grassley on his assignment to the Subcommittee on Estate and Gift Taxation and on all tax matters before the Senate Finance committee. Her duties included preparing opening statements, drafting amendments and questions for witnesses before the committee; and monitoring Senate floor action to brief the Senator on important developments. Ms. Willey met with constituents, trade associations and Senate colleagues to develop tax legislation. Ms. Willey was involved in multiple Conference Committee deliberations and Republican leadership meetings as Senator Grassley’s representative.

Ms. Willey joined McGladrey & Pullen National Tax after working for Congress. Her initial responsibilities included monitoring and communicating new federal tax legislative developments and analyzing federal tax regulatory guidance for clients and McGladrey & Pullen tax professionals. As a Managing Director, she led teams of tax specialists to develop new tax ideas for clients. During her tenure with McGladrey, Ms. Willey testified before the IRS, participated in Finance committee hearings, worked with trade associations and met with legislative staff to advise them of issues of concern to the accounting profession and clients.

At McGladrey & Pullen, Ms. Willey served as a national leader on estate and gift tax issues. In that role, she drafted the initial Estate Planning Practice Guide, advised on tax practice and ethical responsibilities in the estate planning engagements and advised on content and speakers for internal estate planning conferences. Ms. Willey has presented seminars on buy-sell agreements and tax planning for high net worth individuals.

Ms. Willey organized the tax due diligence project and interoffice reviews for the merger of RSM McGladrey with American Express Tax and Business Services. She led tax practice integration efforts to address and resolve business management and software integration issues: capitalizing on her tax practice management consulting skills she honed working with RSM McGladrey’s Southern California, Mid-Atlantic, Philadelphia and Seattle tax practices.

Susan H. Willey graduated cum laude from UCLA. Ms. Willey spent two quarters at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design working toward a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning. She earned her J. D. degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Ms. Willey earned her Masters in Taxation (L.L.M.) from Georgetown University Law Center.

Articles:

• IRS unveils favorable settlement program for worker classification issues. March 6th, 2011. The IRS announced a voluntary compliance initiative to allow employers to reclassify workers as employees rather than independent contractors. If eligible, an employer who elects to reclassify workers will pay only 10% of the tax liability attributable to the reclassification for the prior three years. Under the initiative, the IRS will waive interest and penalties associated with the reclassification of the workers who the employer proposes to reclassify as employees. Read More >>

• Erroneous Worker Classification Creates Tax Liability, March 6th, 2010. The article discussed the recently revised guidelines that the Internal Revenue Service utilizes to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees. The article also discussed the consequences of a misclassification and recent enforcement efforts on both the federal and state level. Read More >>

• Summary of Significant Tax Provisions in the American Recovery and Economic Stimulus Bill of 2009, March 1, 2009. This article discusses the tax provisions of the stimulus package and the changes affecting business and individual taxpayers, employee benefit changes, energy efficiency incentives, bond financing provisions, and other changes. Read more >>

Admitted to Practice (States)
• State of California, 1978
• State of Iowa, 1985

Memberships, Offices and Committee Assignments in Bar Associations
• American Bar Association Tax Section
• California State Bar Association
• Iowa State Bar Association Tax Section
• Linn County Bar Association
• Spring Tax Institute Chair of Tax Section of ISBA

Place of Birth
Glendale, California

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Kyle Wilcox and Susan Willey speak on estate planning issues

Kyle Wilcox and Susan Willey spoke on "Estate Planning: the Basics" at the Iowa State Bar Association's "Nuts and Bolts" conference on October 11, 2010. Unless Congress acts, the federal estate tax is repealed for 2010 followed by the reinstatement of the 2001 federal estate tax law in 2011. Many knowledgeable observers believe that Congress will ultimately pass a federal estate tax plan that follows 2009 law. Planning in this environment is a significant challenge for clients, as well as their lawyers.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Edge Business Magazine publishes article by Susan Willey on worker classifications and tax liability

The March 2010 issue of Edge Business Magazine published an article by Susan Willey titled “Erroneous Worker Classification Creates Tax Liability.” The article discussed the recently revised guidelines that the Internal Revenue Service utilizes to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees. The article also discussed the consequences of a misclassification and recent enforcement efforts on both the federal and state levels.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Kyle Wilcox and Susan Willey to Speak at Nuts & Bolts CLE

Kyle Wilcox and Susan Willey are scheduled to speak at the "Nuts & Bolts CLE" on Monday, October 19, 2009. Their topic will be: "Estate Planning Basics."

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Susan Willey Presents Program on Tax Changes in Stimulus Package

Susan H. Willey is presenting a program for the Greater Iowa City Homebuilders Association entitled “Tax Changes in the Stimulus Package – will they grow your Business?” Her presentation is scheduled from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on April 9, 2009. Her talk will focus on the recent tax changes in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that benefit the construction industry. Later in the month, she will address the Cedar Rapids Homebuilders’ Association on the same topic. This discussion will take place on April 20th at the Embassy Club, El Kahir Shrine Temple in Cedar Rapids from 12:00 to 1:00. She was recently interviewed by the Cedar Rapids Gazette on the changes to the First-Time Homebuyers’ Credit at the request of the Greater Iowa City Homebuilders to help inform prospective buyers about the benefits of the credit.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Summary of Significant Tax Provisions in the American Recovery and Economic Stimulus Bill of 2009

Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman attorneys are organized by practice area to deliver comprehensive legal services to clients. Our practice areas review new legislation for opportunities for clients, including the new American Recovery and Economic Stimulus Act of 2009.

Our Labor and Employment Law Practice group is working to rapidly implement the COBRA premium subsidy with clients and employees. Our Renewable Energy Practice group is strategically collaborating with wind and solar producers to develop projects that capture the new legislative incentives. Our Municipal Law practice group has assessed the new bond and public finance opportunities created under the Act.

Many business taxpayers can optimize cash flow by reviewing the new law to increase depreciation deductions or carry back net operating losses. The economic stimulus bill also includes some beneficial corporate changes affecting S corporations and financial institutions. Our Taxation Law practice group, Corporate Transaction and Business Counseling practice group, and our Finance and Financial Institutions practice group are working with clients to capitalize on the incentives created in this new law.

For more information on the Act, please see this article by Susan Willey.