Although providing advice and representation on regulatory matters is an important part of the firm’s practice, we are more than regulatory counsel — we are railroad counsel familiar with the business of railroad transportation. This requires knowledge of the structure of the industry, railroad operations, marketing and finance, competition, ratemaking, equipment and organization. It also requires an understanding of the relationships among multiple carriers, between carriers and their customers, and between carriers and their suppliers. The firm’s senior attorneys have extensive in-house railroad experience assisting large and small railroads in all aspects of their business and in each of these relationships.
The Railroad Retirement Board (“RRB”) administers retirement and unemployment-sickness benefit programs for railroad workers and their families under the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts. As part of its responsibilities, the RRB makes employer and employee coverage decisions, conducts audits on covered employers, and conducts investigations relating to coverage and benefit issues. Rail carriers are not the only businesses subject to railroad retirement taxes. An entity which is under common control with a rail carrier can also be considered an employer for railroad retirement purposes, depending on the services that the entity provides. Likewise, an employee of a third party can be considered an employee of a carrier, and thus subject to railroad retirement taxes, depending on the worker’s duties and the carrier’s control of the worker. We advise clients how to structure corporate entities, transactions, and business relationships to achieve favorable railroad retirement tax treatment, and offer unparalleled expertise in guiding clients through RRB proceedings, including investigations, audits, and coverage determinations.
