Melissa Sampson McMorrow is the chair of the Tax Department and a member of Nutter Charitable Advisors. She advises businesses, tax-exempt entities and individuals at the federal, state and international levels.
Melissa specializes in advising a wide range of charitable and other nonprofit organizations in planning and executing complex reorganizations, implementing and maintaining good governance practices, developing compensation plans, accepting charitable gifts, structuring new ventures, managing lobbying activities, and obtaining and maintaining federal and local exemptions. She frequently represents these entities, and other taxpayers, before the Internal Revenue Service and state and local authorities. Melissa also regularly advises donors in developing and optimizing their charitable giving goals. A sample of representative engagements includes:
Overseeing the tax aspects of corporate reorganizations of several large area charities
Representing charitable organizations in the receipt of complex gifts of all sizes
Advising charities on the application for and appeal of denials of charitable property tax exemptions
Structuring joint ventures between nonprofit and for profit organizations
Providing creative solutions for exempt organizations with respect to managing restrictions on compensation, lobbying and unrelated business activities
Developing scholarship and disaster relief programs for independent and company-sponsored foundations
Devising operating procedures for the foreign grantmaking activities of private foundations and public charities
Obtaining a private letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service, on an expedited basis, authorizing a creative use of a museum’s bond-financed property
Developing a gift acceptance policy for a leading donor-advised fund in connection with the acceptance of S corporation stock
Representing private foundations before the Internal Revenue Service to obtain an abatement of a significant amount of penalty excise taxes
Counseling individual donors regarding the pros and cons of private foundations, supporting organizations, donor-advised funds and other charitable giving vehicles
Representing social welfare organizations, trade associations and social clubs with respect to operational matters and the creation of charitable subsidiaries
Melissa is the inaugural co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Tax Exempt Organization Section and an active member of the American Bar Association. Melissa is a board member of the Carlisle Education Foundation and a past Trustee of the Women’s Bar Foundation of Massachusetts. Prior to entering law school, Melissa was an analyst in the Tax Analysis Division of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office and at the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.