Roland Barral has been a practicing attorney since 1983. He has served as the Area Counsel for Financial Services in the Large Business and International Division (formerly the Large and Mid-Size Business Division) since its inception in July 2000. As Area Counsel, Mr. Barral is the chief advisor to the Internal Revenue Service's Large Business and International Division on all Financial Services legal issues and matters.
Mr. Barral received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Rutgers University and his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University.
During his tenure with the Office of Chief Counsel, Roland has advised many examination and appeals teams on varied issues and he was one of the founding members of the Office of Chief Counsel's Large Case Program. He was also directly responsible for the development and litigation of many major tax matters before the United States Tax Court involving complex domestic and international issues. Roland was one of the principal negotiators for the IRS in the Glaxo SmithKline Holdings transfer pricing case that resulted in a $3.4 billion dollar payment, the largest single payment ever made to the IRS to resolve a tax dispute. In the corporate tax shelter arena, he was one of the principal architects of the Service's corporate tax shelter promoter program and directly oversaw the Service's string of successful enforcement actions against major accounting, investment banking, and law firms. Roland also spearheaded the Service's recent successful efforts to officially adopt book/tax conformity for the valuation of securities under I.R.C. Section 475 and he led the Service's global settlement initiative for leasing transactions that brought several billion dollars into the United States Treasury.
Mr. Barral has been honored with the Commissioner's Award in 2001, 2006, and 2010. In 2003, Roland was presented with the Chief Counsel's Award. In 2006, President Bush honored Roland with a Presidential Rank Award for his meritorious service in combating corporate tax shelters.