Antonio “Tony” Bauzá Santos is the founding partner and Chair of the Tax Law Department of Bauzá Brau Hernández Irizarry & Silva. Mr. Bauzá is a Certified Public Accountant and an attorney with over 35 years of experience in tax consulting. Mr. Bauzá worked as a tax manager at Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche) and later at Arthur Andersen, where he eventually became Director of the Tax Consulting Practice. After becoming an attorney, he worked at Goldman Antonetti & Córdova, where he was a shareholder and Chair of the Tax Department. Previously, he was a founding partner and Chair of the Tax Department at Morell Bauzá Cartagena & Dapena.
Mr. Bauzá’s current legal practice focuses on transactional tax planning and counseling for a broad range of Puerto Rico, United States, and foreign business entities. He also has extensive experience in a variety of tax matters including corporate tax, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate reorganizations and international taxation. He was one of the technical advisors that drafted Act-73-2008, the local statute which provides tax incentives to certain manufacturing companies in Puerto Rico. For the past six years, Mr. Bauzá has been intricately involved with Act 20-2012 (tax benefits for export business) and Act 22-2012 (incentives to individual investors relocating their residence to Puerto Rico).
During the last 20 years, Mr. Bauzá has also counseled individuals, residents, and non-resident in matters directly related to Estate and Gift taxation, as well as inheritance law matters under the Puerto Rico Civil Code. In this area, he was also actively litigated in the Puerto Rico Court of First Instance and Appellate Courts.
Mr. Bauzá frequently lectures for the Puerto Rico Society of Certified Public Accountants, where he presents seminars on Federal estate and Puerto Rico tax matters, specifically in the area of Federal and Puerto Rico estate tax planning and partition subject to local procedures.
