Shari Thakady, director of tax at Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (NYSE: RPT), joined REIT.com for a video interview during REITWise 2014: NAREIT’s Law, Accounting and Finance Conference held in Boca Raton, Fla.
Ramco-Gershenson’s primary business is the ownership and management of multi-anchor shopping centers in strategic metropolitan markets throughout the Eastern, Midwestern and Central United States.
Thakady was asked to comment on the range of tax issues facing REIT tax directors and the ones causing the most concern.
“Most of us are not overly concerned about the real tax technical issues, Thakady said. “I think we have great advisors that we can turn to for those issues. I think that what you’re going to find is that most of us have sleepless nights over the things that we don’t know, what’s uncovered, what we haven’t been communicated about, things of that nature. I think you’re going to find that it’s more the soft topics than the technical topics that give us the most angst.”
Thakady also spoke about under-the-radar tax issues that could become more prominent: “I think the biggest issue for most of us is impermissible services , especially with the invention of social media… At what point are those customary services, as opposed to just one-offs that only a few REITs here and there manage to use?”
Meanwhile, Thakady was asked if local and state tax issues have any impact on Ramco-Gershenson’s decisions about where to expand.
“If we are going to enter a new state that has either a large gross receipts or a margins tax, or a franchise tax, then we need to take that into consideration when we’re pricing a particular acquisition,” she said.