Xenia Vélez Silva

E-mail address: xv@mcvpr.com
Phone number: (787) 250-2620
Fax number: (787) 474-9221

Xenia Vélez Silva is a Senior Tax Counsel in the Tax Practice Group and Chair of the Tax Exemption Practice Area.

Practice Areas

Ms. Vélez' practice includes the Puerto Rico tax and industrial incentives acts, and provisions relative to U.S. income taxation of international operations, including Sections 936 and 30A, as well as the Puerto Rico and U.S. taxation of investment income, including government obligations. She has extensive experience in the representation of clients before the Puerto Rico Treasury Department and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, including negotiations of private letter rulings and closing agreements. She has also had experience negotiating tax exemption grants with the Puerto Rico Office of Industrial Tax Exemption. She has lobbied before Congress and the Puerto Rico Legislature, and has actively participated in the drafting of legislation and regulations at both the federal and the local level.

Ms. Vélez was appointed Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico in November 1997, a position she held through December 31, 2000.

Education

She obtained a Bachelor in Business Administration with majors in Accounting and Marketing, and a Juris Doctor, both from the University of Puerto Rico.

Admissions

Ms. Vélez is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Memberships

She is a member of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, the American Bar Association (Tax Section), the Puerto Rico Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

Ms. Vélez has also been a member of the Board of Directors of various government entities, including the Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company and the Government Employees' Retirement Systems, among others.

Publications/Public Engagements

Ms. Vélez is the author of Tax Court Douses IRS Efforts to Limit Profits Allocated to 936 Sub, published in the Journal of International Taxation, April 1996.

Ms. Vélez has been a frequent speaker in seminars sponsored by the Puerto Rico Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association and others.