James G Busby Jr

James G. Busby, Jr. is a Shareholder at The Cavanagh Law Firm where his practice involves all areas of Arizona state and local tax (SALT) including sales, use, gross receipts, transaction privilege, excise, luxury, tobacco, and severance taxes, as well as income, real, and personal property taxes. For over 30 years, James has assisted his clients with state and local tax planning, litigation and controversy, legislation, and policy matters. He regularly serves as local counsel for America's largest law firms and assists the world's largest accounting and tax consulting firms with their clients' Arizona SALT issues, problems, and opportunities.

Before entering private practice, James served as Chief Auditor for sales tax at the Arizona Department of Revenue. In his law practice, and before that while working for two of the world’s largest accounting firms (Arthur Andersen and Deloitte), James has successfully advised and represented numerous clients of all sizes, and from numerous industries, in a wide variety of tax matters.

Mr. Busby was chosen by his peers for inclusion among the The Best Lawyers in America® for Tax Law and for Litigation and Controversy - Tax, is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, was recognized as a PHOENIX Magazine Top Lawyer in Tax Law, received the State Bar of Arizona Tax Law Section's 2024 Henry Tom Outstanding Tax Attorney Award (commonly known as the Tax Section's "Lifetime Achievement Award"), and is Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated™.

James lectures extensively on state and local tax topics. He co-authored Bloomberg's Arizona Corporate Income Tax Navigator, and he co-authored the chapter regarding the Judicial Review of Taxation in the Arizona Appellate Handbook published by the State Bar of Arizona. James also wrote a column relating to Arizona tax issues for State Tax Notes entitled SALT From My Saddle, and a column on state and local tax topics for the AZ CPA Magazine entitled A Dash of SALT.

Mr. Busby offers a variety of state and municipal tax services, such as amnesty and voluntary disclosure negotiations; assistance with disputes (audits, appeals, negotiations, and litigation); credits and incentives; private taxpayer rulings; state, county, and city taxes, including speculative builder taxes; tax policy assistance (review, analyze, and/or draft proposed legislation), tax reviews (reverse audits and refund claims); nexus studies, personalized in-house training; due diligence and planning for mergers and acquisitions as well as transactional analysis and strategic planning.