To Be or Not to Be: When Using a Professional Entity Makes Sense
February 13, 2026
John D. Perry
Business and Tax Attorney
T 919.277.9225
F 919.277.9177
E jdperry@wardandsmith.com
O Raleigh, NC
Practice Areas:
Business, Closely Held Companies, International, Mergers and Acquisitions, Tax
John is a business and tax attorney with extensive experience helping clients navigate complex transactions. His work involves everything from private equity acquisitions, stock and asset purchase agreements, and private securities offerings to corporate restructuring, tax planning and compliance, and tax audits.
Additionally, John advises corporations and entities across several different industries on cash repatriation, worthless stock deductions, various domestic and cross-border taxable and tax deferred transactions.
Prior to joining Ward and Smith, John served as a tax consultant for a large international accounting firm.
- LL.M., Taxation, University of Florida, Levin College of Law, 2013
- J.D., cum laude, University of Florida, Levin College of Law, 2002
- B.S., University of North Carolina Wilmington, 1995
- North Carolina, 2008
- Florida, 2003
I’m a native North Carolinian, and if you had told me as a kid that I would become an international tax lawyer with the opportunity to work on projects with people around the globe, including in Europe, China, and South America, I would not have believed you!
I didn’t go directly from college to law school, because for a short time in my twenties, I wanted to be an actor. That did not come to fruition, though I once played an attorney in a scene with Helen Hunt and Richard Dreyfuss, where I was the counsel to Helen Hunt’s character. That was the highlight of my acting career; I was mostly an extra in shows filmed in the Southeast.
Today, I translate that acting bug into a passion for teaching and lecturing. I enjoy helping others learn about the complexities of tax law.
Representative Experience
- Advised private equity firms in conducting buy-side tax due diligence of target companies in the healthcare and communications industries, including evaluating tax attributes, identifying potential material US federal and international tax exposures, and reviewing tax provisions of stock and asset purchase agreements.
- Advised a technology company in designing and implementing internal cross-border restructuring transaction to separate its e-commerce and web publishing businesses.
- Assisted Fortune 500 apparel manufacturer in defending against IRS audit of certain cross-border transactions and prepared successful request for penalty relief for inadvertently omitted tax filings.
- Led a multi-jurisdictional team of tax professionals in facilitating the deregistration and liquidation of a Chinese manufacturing operation and overseeing the repatriation of the liquidation proceeds to the US parent company.
- Counseled foreign companies with US operations on US withholding tax issues, tax treaty eligibility, investment in US real property, and US tax compliance obligations.
