Bonner J. Gonzalez

Shareholder, Practice Group Leader, Industry Group Leader

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  • Overview
  • Experience
  • Honors & Involvement
Bio overview

Bonner Gonzalez is a corporate and tax attorney who represents individuals, privately held businesses and public companies in the areas of business and tax planning, tax-advantaged activities, complex business transactions, family wealth and estate planning, and local, state and federal taxation. He currently serves as co-leader of the firm’s Economic Development, Tax Credits and Business Incentives Group and devotes a significant portion fo his practice to representing public and private companies project sponsors, and investors in financing high-profile development projects and securing and bundling a myriad of state and federal business and tax incentives.  He also leads McAfee & Taft’s Manufacturing and Logistics Industry Group.

His experience includes structuring complex business entities and tax-exempt organizations, completing stock and asset acquisitions, working on complex mergers and acquisitions, and advising clients as to the best structure in which to hold existing assets. He has also successfully represented clients in tax disputes with the Oklahoma Tax Commission and Internal Revenue Service.

A portion of Bonner’s practice is also dedicated to family wealth and estate planning and has included the utilization of a number of sophisticated wealth transfer tax planning strategies, including sales to grantor trusts, private annuity transactions, and valuation discount planning.

Bonner’s achievements have earned him inclusion in Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America (commercial finance law; corporate law; tax law) and Oklahoma Super Lawyers’ list of “Oklahoma Rising Stars,” which recognizes the state’s top up-and-coming attorneys.

Bonner holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and law degree from the University of Oklahoma and a master of laws degree in taxation from New York University.

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Experience, Honors, & Awards

Representative Experience

Business and Tax Incentives

  • Serve as lead counsel to an Oklahoma-based community development entity (CDE) with New Markets Tax Credit authority.
  • Structuring transactions to quality for tax incentives, including the New Market Tax Credits and various state tax credits.
  • Advise public and private companies on the Oklahoma Quality Jobs program and other state and local incentives.
  • Negotiated and documented a TIF economic development agreement and other incentive agreements for a $170 million office tower, hotel, underground parking garage, public realm area and innovation hall building to be located in the Innovation District of downtown Oklahoma City.
  • Represented owner/developer group in redevelopment of iconic one million square foot First National Center in downtown Oklahoma City (over $250 million redevelopment project with boutique luxury hotel and premium residential units, restaurants, retail, business incubator space, and a 14-floor parking garage), including title and survey matters, condominium documents, environmental matters (including Brownfield loans for remediation of asbestos and lead paint), leasing, operation and service agreements, and project financing (including construction loans, tax increment financing through the City of Oklahoma City, new markets tax credit financing, state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credit financing, tourism tax credits, and HUD Section 108 financing).
  • Negotiated and documented a TIF economic development agreement for an office building, parking garage, and hotel project located in Tulsa, OK.
  • Negotiated and documented a TIF economic development agreement and other incentive agreements for a multi-phase residential apartments complex that included low-income housing tax credits and federal and state historic tax credits.
  • Negotiated and documented a TIF economic development agreement for the relocation of Griffin Communications’ broadcasting company (OKC Channel 9) to the Century Center Building in downtown Oklahoma City.

Tax and Family Wealth

  • Representation of businesses and individuals in asset sales and purchases, stock sales and purchases, and other merger and acquisition transactions.
  • Counsel to buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions, including tax-free reorganizations.
  • Income tax planning.
  • Tax-deferred exchanges.
  • Multi-generational wealth transfer and business succession planning.
  • Company reorganizations and restructurings, including spin-offs, split-offs and split-ups.
  • Representation of businesses and individuals in state and federal tax controversies, including working with the Oklahoma Tax Commission and the Internal Revenue Service.

 

Honors and Awards

  • Listed in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business
  • Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (commercial finance law; corporate law; tax law)
  • Named to Oklahoma Super Lawyers’ list of “Oklahoma Rising Stars,” which recognizes the state’s up-and-coming attorneys

Professional Organizations and Memberships

  • Oklahoma County Bar Association
  • Oklahoma Bar Association

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Attorney Articles

Articles

SBA loans and related relief under the CARES Act

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Industry Groups

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Admissions

  • Oklahoma, 2004
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
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Education

  • LL.M. (Taxation), New York University, 2007
  • J.D., with honors, University of Oklahoma, 2004
    • Order of the Coif
  • B.B.A. (Accounting), cum laude, University of Oklahoma, 2000
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Professional Certification

  • Certified Public Accountant (Inactive)
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Media

‘Opportunity Zone’ Tax Incentives

November 13, 2018