Neil V. Birkhoff

Neil’s practice includes federal, state, and local tax planning for individuals and businesses, and he represents businesses and individuals before tax authorities and in court on tax matters.

Neil assists clients with retirement plans and welfare plans, ERISA matters, and benefits-related tax issues, as well as fiduciary liability issues, and taxation of employee benefits. Neil also provides counsel regarding Section 457 plans for tax-exempt organizations and non-qualified deferred compensation plans. Neil can advise and assist employers with insured and self-insured health plans, life insurance plans, cafeteria plans, and dependent care plans. Neil also works with individuals in planning and implementing estate plans and charitable giving plans.

Neil is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and a past chair of both the Virginia State Bar’s Section of Taxation and the Virginia Bar Association’s Section of Taxation. Prior to joining Woods Rogers in 1987, he was a trial attorney in the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

• Assisted a charitable trust and individual philanthropist in structuring and implementing a $50 million structured gift to a higher education institution to support biomedical research. The charitable gift planning included obtaining favorable private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service.
• Represented federal and Virginia historic rehabilitation tax credit investors in projects including the rehabilitation and restoration of the former Roanoke YMCA building, the former Ponce de Leon Hotel building, and the Center in the Square building.
• Developed and successfully litigated a strict textualist interpretation of a local merchants' capital tax situs rule, resulting in a favorable decision from the Supreme Court of Virginia that set precedent for interpreting state tax statutes, and saved the taxpayer several hundreds of thousands of dollars in local taxes each year on a forward basis.
• Developed and successfully litigated an interpretation of the “definite place of business” rule under Virginia’s business license tax regime. The Supreme Court of Virginia’s decision not only changed the way local commissioners of revenue apply the business license tax but provided substantial tax savings on an ongoing annual basis to the taxpayer.
• Used his knowledge and experience with Virginia’s sales and use tax statutes and regulations to successfully pursue an administrative appeal with the Virginia Department of Taxation that resulted in the full abatement of a six-figure use tax penalty involving the out-of-state purchase of an aircraft.
• Served as Visiting Director of the Washington and Lee University School of Law Tax Clinic, supervising student attorneys in the representation of low-income tax payers before the IRS and the Virginia Department of Taxation in tax audits, collection matters, administrative appeals, and tax litigation.

Recognition

Education

George Washington University, LL.M., Taxation

William & Mary School of Law, J.D.

University of Virginia, B.A., with distinction

Admissions

Virginia

U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Federal Claims

U.S. Court of International Trade

U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia

U.S. Tax Court

• American Bar Association, Taxation and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Sections
• American College of Tax Counsel, Fellow
• Carilion Clinic Foundation's Professional Advisory Group
• Roanoke Bar Association
• Roanoke Valley Estate Planning Council

• Co-author. "Income Tax Classification." Limited Liability Companies in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 2024. 
• Co-author. "Tax Aspects of Corporations." Corporations and Partnerships in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 2021.
• Co-author. "Tax Aspects of Condemnation Awards." Eminent Domain – State & Federal, Virginia CLE Publications, 2018. 
• Author. “Beyond BATSA: State Taxation Without State Boundaries.” Washington and Lee Law Review, vol. 67, no. 341, 2010.