Ameek Ashok Ponda

Practice Areas

Tax

REITs

Tax Planning for Business Owners & Investors

International Tax

Emerging Companies & Venture Capital

Mergers & Acquisitions

Private Investment Funds & Institutional Investors

Tax Planning for High-Net-Worth Individuals

Real Estate, Alternative & Offshore Investment Funds

Agriculture & Timberland

Career

Ameek Ashok Ponda is a tax partner with Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston, director of the firm’s Tax Department, and previously a member of the firm’s Management Committee.

Ameek's practice includes domestic and international taxation, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and real estate investment trusts. Nationally recognized for his work in REIT conversions and REIT cross-border matters, Ameek has represented public and private REITs in an array of real property sectors, both domestically and abroad, including: business storage facilities; cold storage facilities; communications towers; data centers; dark and lit fiber; digital billboards; distributed antenna systems; hotels and travel centers; industrial properties; mortgage loans; single-family and multi-family residential; office buildings; parking facilities; retail properties; senior living facilities; solar, wind, and other power infrastructure; timberlands; transmission and distribution lines; as well as vineyards, greenhouses, and other agricultural properties.

Ameek is also an adjunct professor with the Boston University School of Law Graduate Tax Program, where for over twenty-five years he has taught tax courses on topics such as business planning, corporate reorganizations, international taxation, regulated investment companies and REITs, and financial products. He has previously served as a lecturer on law with the Harvard Law School and with Boston College Law School. Ameek is Vice-President of the American College of Tax Counsel, Board Chair of Tax Analysts (publisher of the Tax Notes series of daily and weekly journals), and a member of the American Law Institute, the International Fiscal Association, the National Tax Association, and Nareit.

Ameek is a charter member and former secretary of The Indus Entrepreneurs – Boston, and a former member of the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council. He is also on the Board of the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (which produces the free “Shakespeare on the Boston Common” in the summer), on the Board of the Harvard Club of Boston, and on the Advisory Boards of GBH (Boston’s PBS affiliate) and of the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston. In 2007, Boston Business Journal named Ameek one of its Boston “40 under 40.” He is fluent in Hindi and Urdu.

Ameek is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.

Professional Memberships

Vice President, American College of Tax Counsel

Chairman of the Board, Tax Analysts

Member, American Law Institute

Member, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit)

Member, International Fiscal Association

Member, National Tax Association

Charter Member and former Secretary, The Indus Entrepreneurs – Boston

American, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations

Member, Board of Advisors, South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston

Adjunct Professor, Boston University School of Law Graduate Tax Program

Former Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School

Former Lecturer on Law, Boston College Law School

Former Board of Regents, American College of Tax Counsel

Former Member, Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC)

Work Highlights

Designed tax structure for well over 1,000 M&A deals

Converted C corporations to public REITs in the travel centers, communication towers, business storage and data center industries

Designed tax structure for first REIT-to-REIT spin-off

Introduced Irish, Canadian and Singapore investors into U.S. real estate deals on a tax-efficient basis

Negotiated novel M&A structures including leveraged partnerships and master prepaid leases

Implemented efficient tax structures for REITs investing in 50 countries throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America

Defended the portfolio interest exemption from IRS challenge to an Islamic law-compliant transaction denominated as a lease rather than a loan

Languages Spoken

Hindi

Urdu

Education