Rita Makaris.

PositionSkidmore, Owings & Merrill L.L.P. tax lawyer - Interview

Rita Makaris' memory of her college tax course is vivid--and not particularly positive:

"All I remember was how frustrating it was--nothing but rules with exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions."

But thirty years later, after an incredibly successful career in tax, Makaris, senior tax manager and assistant firm-wide controller at Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP, couldn't be happier about her chosen profession.

It didn't take long for her to be bitten by the tax bug. She first became interested in the field only two years out of school while working in the corporate accounting department at RR Donnelley. "It was my job to help set up new entity accounting, and, at the time, the tax function was creating new, special-purpose companies. I sat in on some of the planning, and it piqued my interest," she explains.

Her interest in tax law hasn't diminished through time. "In the last few years I have been involved in more international tax research than I had in the past and am really enjoying it. While I am researching similar issues in different jurisdictions, the results are so varied that it doesn't get stale," she says.

Makaris' RR Donnelley experience was extremely significant in her career path. "I worked for twenty years for RR Donnelley--my first employer out of college. I learned the most at that company because I sort of grew up' there. The leadership in the tax department was great at teaching me the technical aspects of tax, but more importantly, about how to deal with people--auditors, co-workers, and consultants--in a professional, friendly, and respectful manner. I cannot say enough what an absolutely fabulous group of people they were, and I am happy to say I am still in touch with many of them on both a personal and professional level," she says. It was at Donnelley that Makaris won the company's President's Award for a tax-savings idea on the treatment of pre-opening costs.

RESULTS-ORIENTED

At her other two employers prior to Skidmore, Makaris was hired into newly minted tax director positions to create a department after a spin-off and a split-off. "In those two instances, I learned that you need to have a great mix of external and internal resources to get the best tax results," she says.

Makaris also learned that not everything is clear-cut in tax law. Here's how she explains one of the niche's most problematic areas: "Generally these types of things center around dealing with an auditor's creative interpretation of the...

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