New York University School of Law

Partner at Holland & Knight LLP

Tampa, Florida, United States

William Sharp is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Tampa office with more than 35 years of experience representing clients in a wide variety of international tax planning and tax controversy cases. Mr. Sharp provides international and domestic tax advice to a numerous U.S.-based and foreign-based clients, including publicly traded and closely held entities. His tax practice also focuses on globally oriented high-net-worth clients, including U.S. and foreign-based family offices. Mr. Sharp has served as lead counsel with respect to U.S. Tax Court, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) appeals and examination cases. He also has served as lead counsel or co-counsel to well over 1,000 IRS voluntary disclosure cases.

Mr. Sharp advises financial institutions and their clients on international tax enforcement initiatives. In addition, Mr. Sharp represents several Swiss-based banking institutions in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice Swiss Bank Program, including the largest bank participating in the program and one of the major cantonal banks (both cases were resolved under Category 3 of the program). Mr. Sharp also has extensive experience in handling matters related to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and other cross-border compliance and disclosure initiatives.

Mr. Sharp has served as an adjunct professor at the Stetson University College of Law and a lecturer at the University of South Florida Executive MBA program. Mr. Sharp is a frequent speaker on international tax and business law matters, and also has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, USA Today and other media on international tax issues.

Holland & Knight LLP

Partner

William M. Sharp, Sr. is the founding and managing partner of Sharp Partners P.A., with offices in Tampa, Florida, San Francisco, California, Zurich, Switzerland and Washington, D.C.   While princiapally based in the firm’s Tampa office, since 2009 Mr. Sharp has been commuting about monthly to Switzerland to work out of the firm’s Zurich office. Mr. Sharp earned his B.S. degree in accounting and economics from Drake University (with honors) in 1975, his J.D. from Indiana University (magna cum laude) 1977, and his LL.M. (in taxation) from New York University in 1980. Mr. Sharp has represented clients in a wide variety of international tax planning and tax controversy cases during his thirty-five year career and served as lead U.S. legal counsel for several Swiss banks involved in the DOJ Program for Swiss banks. Prior to founding this boutique international tax practice, Mr. Sharp was a partner with large Florida-based law firms, where he led the firm’s international practice group. He also has served as lead or co-counsel with respect to United States Tax Court proceedings, Internal Revenue Service Appeals and examination cases, as well as a multitude of Internal Revenue Service voluntary disclosure cases dating back to the early 1980’s.  Mr. Sharp is a member of the Florida Bar and is a member of the American Bar Association (Sections on Business Law, Taxation, International law and Practice) and has served as an adjunct professor at the Stetson University School of Law and a lecturer at the University of South Florida Executive MBA program. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (for Taxation as well as International Trade), Mr. Sharp has the highest rating issued by Martindale Hubbell (“AV”). Mr. Sharp has authored or co-authored tax articles in The International Lawyer, Tax Notes International, The Florida Bar Journal, Indiana Law Review, Real Estate Law Journal, Southwestern Law Journal, Taxes-The Tax Magazine, and The Texas Bar Journal.