Expertise

Bio

Ofir Paz specializes in corporate taxation, including income tax, international taxation, tax treaties and transfer pricing, M&A transactions, employee stock-based compensation and executive compensation, capital markets and investment funds taxation, financing and investment transactions, VAT, reporting and compliance in accordance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) rules, and litigation in the area income taxation.

Ofir’s wide experience in these areas includes drafting legal opinions, providing tax advice with respect to stock purchase agreements (SPAs) and asset purchase agreements (APAs), from both the seller’s perspective and the buyer’s perspective, conducting due diligence in various tax areas, drafting memorandums, making applications for preliminary tax rulings in various income tax areas (including employee stock based compensation, international taxation and capital markets), voluntary disclosure procedures, as well as ongoing representation and advising with the Israel Tax Authority (including the professional division), Israeli and foreign paying agents and financial institutes (including banks).

As part of his experience, Ofir engages in, advises on and is involved with various areas of tax law (including international taxation) on an ongoing basis, at various stages of numerous complex M&A transactions, financing transactions and investments transactions.

In addition, Ofir engages in tax litigation in various income tax areas in courts and tribunals, including representing multinational corporations against the Israel Tax Authority in cases heard in district courts and appeal tribunals. This includes preparing court documents, formulating legal claims and strategy, as well as representing in and advising on settlement procedures and mutual agreement procedures.

Ofir was a pre-intern and intern in the tax department of S. Horowitz & Co. law firm, and afterwards worked in the international tax department of PWC Israel and the tax department of Zysman, Aharoni, Gayer & Co (ZAG-S&W), among other positions. He joined the firm in 2019 and became a partner in 2023. He is ranked as a Rising Star in General Corporate Tax by the ITR Tax World Guide.

EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Led the legal proceedings of Appeal 1830-21 before the Corona Appeal Committee, together with Ofir Levy (CPA) from the firm’s Tax Department, which led to a precedent decision that obligated the Director of the Israel Tax Authority to exercise its authority, established by law, to deviate from the grant calculation formula in favor of the appellant. 
  • Represented Palo Alto Networks in its acquisitions in Israel, including of Cider Security and of Bridgecrew.
  • Represented IBM in the acquisitions of Polar Security and Databand.ai.
  • Represented Intel in Israel, including in the acquisition of Granulate Cloud Solutions.
  • Represented Snap Inc. in the acquisition of Voca.ai.
  • Represented EssilorLuxottica, including in the acquisition of Nuance Hearing.
  • Represented PayPal in the acquisition of Curv.
  • Represented JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley as well as IBI INVESTMENT HOUSE LTD, in the acquisition of bonds from Energean Israel Finance Ltd.
  • Represented Intuit in its acquisition of imVision.

Recognition

General corporate tax
Tax
Rising Star 2024 - General corporate tax
Education
2011 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem | LLB (Law & accounting)
Admission
2012 Israel
Ofir Paz

Ofir Paz

Partner
132 Begin Road, Azrieli Center, Tel Aviv 6702101, Israel
Ofir Paz