Elliot Pisem

Partner

P: 212-903-8777

Elliot Pisem, for more than 30 years, has concentrated on corporate and partnership taxation.

Working with a broad range of clients, including real estate investors and developers, he has created, negotiated, and implemented sophisticated partnership arrangements, joint ventures, and corporate structures to accommodate complex transactions. With extensive experience in lessor/lessee issues in real property transactions, tax-free like-kind exchanges, and the structuring and operation of REITs, he has worked with tax-exempt investors; advised on historic rehabilitation projects, charitable contributions of “façade easements” and similar interests in real property; and developed tax-efficient structures for investment by foreign persons in U.S. real property and techniques for acquiring property already held by foreign owners. In addition to taxable and tax-free acquisitions, he has advised on spin-offs and other corporate and partnership divisions, and deals with the taxation of financial instruments, including the application of original issue discount, straddle, and swap rules, and the use of single- and multi-class pass-through certificate structures. He has represented corporate and non-corporate debtors and their creditors in debt restructuring and workout transactions, both within and outside of bankruptcy.

He serves on the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the NY State Bar Association and as Co-Chair of its Committee on Compliance, Practice & Procedure, having previously served as Co-Chair of the Committees on Pass-Through Entities, Partnerships, Tax Accounting Matters, Bankruptcy, Cost Recovery, and Real Property. The committees he has co-chaired have prepared reports on, inter alia, Regulations under Code section 707(a)(2) relating to “disguised sales” of property between partnerships and partners, the transfer pricing Regulations under Code section 482, the “bonus depreciation” Regulations under Code sections 168(k) and 1400(b), and monetary penalties on practitioners under Treasury Department Circular 230. He is the co-author of a bi-monthly column on corporate tax matters in the New York Law Journal and writes frequently for the Journal of Taxation and other publications.

Education

Columbia Law School, J.D., Stone scholar
Columbia University, B.A.

Admissions

New York

Courts

United States Tax Court
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

News & Insights

April 17, 2026
Publications

Consequences of Corporate Status Suspension

Elliot Pisem, David E. Kahen
New York Law Journal

In their latest article for the New York Law Journal, Elliot Pisem and David E. Kahen explain, "Consequences of Corporate Status Suspension: Arbor Vita Corp. v. Commissioner."

February 19, 2026
Publications

Taxpayer’s Attempted Characterization of Stock as Debt Rejected: Aventis, Inc. v. Commissioner

Elliot Pisem, David E. Kahen
New York Law Journal

Elliot Pisem and David E. Kahen provide an analysis of Aventis v. Commissioner: why the FASIT failed statutory and grandfather rules, and how the court applied substantial compliance and debt vs. equity tests.

December 18, 2025
Publications

Tax Treatment of Payments to Seller’s Creditors: ‘Temnorod v. Commissioner’

David E. Kahen, Elliot Pisem
New York Law Journal

October 23, 2025
Publications

Substance over Form and Sham Arguments Rebuffed: ‘Perrigo Co. v. United States’

David E. Kahen, Elliot Pisem
New York Law Journal

In an article for the New York Law Journal, Elliot Pisem and David E. Kahen discuss a recent District Court decision regarding the application of substance over form and other “tax common law” doctrines in a context in which the Internal Revenue Service also proposed adjustments under IRC section 482.

08/21/2025
Publications

“Break Fee” Classified as Ordinary Deduction: AbbVie, Inc. v. Commissioner

David E. Kahen, Elliot Pisem
New York Law Journal

A "break fee" paid in connection with the termination of a plan to combine two companies under a holding company structure was determined by the Tax Court to be allowable as an ordinary deduction.

07/10/2025
Publications

Loss Deduction Denied Under Public Policy Doctrine: Hampton v. Commissioner

David E. Kahen, Elliot Pisem
New York Law Journal

A recent memorandum decision of the Tax Court confirms that a loss otherwise deductible under Section 165 of the Internal Revenue Code may nonetheless be disallowed under the "public policy" doctrine.

4/17/2025
Publications

Inclusion in Taxable Income of Government Aid: CF Headquarters Corp. v Commissioner

Elliot Pisem, David E. Kahen
New York Law Journal

This article discusses a recent decision of the Tax Court, CF Headquarters Corp. v. Commissioner, that concluded that a government grant under a program intended to aid businesses affected by the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, could not be excluded from the income of the corporation that received the grant as a “contribution to capital” (or otherwise).

02/20/2025
Publications

“All Events” Test for Accrual of Deductions: Morning Star Packing Co. v. Commissioner

David E. Kahen, Elliot Pisem
New York Law Journal

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a decision of the Tax Court that two partnerships engaged in a food processing and packaging business failed to establish that all the events had occurred to establish liability for anticipated costs of annual reconditioning of manufacturing equipment during each of the four years at issue, where the reconditioning did not occur until the year after the year in which the expenses were treated for tax accounting purposes as having been incurred.