Julian A. Fortuna

Julian A. Fortuna is a member of the Corporate and Business Group at Taylor English Duma LLP where he focuses on domestic and international tax planning for business entities, owners and executives. He also represents clients in tax controversy matters before the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), the Georgia Department of Revenue and various other federal, state, local and foreign tax authorities, the United States Tax Court and the Georgia Tax Tribunal. With over 30 years of professional tax experience, Mr. Fortuna is capable of handling all tax matters related to the formation, financing, operation, restructuring, and disposition of a wide variety of business entities.  He also handles estate and trust matters. 

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Fortuna was Vice President and General Tax Counsel for InterContinental Hotels Group ("IHG"). During his 12 year tenure at IHG, Mr. Fortuna was responsible for structuring the domestic and international tax impacts of numerous mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and other corporate transactions, as well as construction projects, leases, exchanges and other real and personal property transactions. Mr. Fortuna was also responsible for state and local tax matters (including property, sales/use and occupancy taxes). He also directed tax research and planning for cross-border financing, captive insurance, and the worldwide use of trade names and other intangible assets. He represented IHG before the IRS and various other tax authorities on audits, appeals, and ruling requests, and pursued tax regulatory and legislative changes for the benefit of IHG with U.S. Treasury and Congressional personnel in Washington D.C.

 Prior to joining IHG, Mr. Fortuna spent eleven years in the tax department at Deloitte and Touche where he served a variety of corporate and individual clients, and prior to that he served four years in the U.S. Treasury Department at Office of the Chief Counsel for the IRS where he was responsible for litigation in the United States Tax Court. Mr. Fortuna distinguished himself at the Office of Chief Counsel by winning seven of the eight cases he tried (he won a third of the other case), including two fraud cases and an accumulated earnings tax case.

 Mr. Fortuna earned a Bachelor of Arts from the City University of New York in 1977, a Juris Doctor from Rutgers University School of Law in 1980, and a Master of Laws from Emory University School of Law in 1984. He is a member in good standing of the Georgia and New York State Bar Associations and is active in various trade and professional organizations, including the American and Atlanta Bar Associations (Taxation and Fiduciary Law Sections), the International Fiscal Association and the Lawyers Club of Atlanta.