Danielle Rolfes joins KPMG as a partner in the National Tax practice

KPMG announced this week (somewhat late it seems to me) that Danielle Rolfes joined the firm in April as a partner in the Washington National Tax (WNT) practice, where she is the co-head of WNT’s International Tax group. She most recently served as international tax counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Rolfes will be based in Washington, D.C.

“Danielle’s long and significant background in international tax policy, coupled with her strong leadership skills, tax technical talent and extensive professional service experience, will further enhance KPMG’s ability to help clients navigate the risks and challenges of today’s turbulent global tax landscape,” said Jeffrey C. LeSage, Vice Chairman of KPMG’s U.S. Tax practice. “She had many options as she considered the next step in her career, so we are delighted to have her join our outstanding international tax team.”

At Treasury, where she served since 2011, Rolfes led the international tax legal staff. In that role, she was the principal legal advisor on all aspects of international tax policy to the assistant secretary for tax policy and the deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs—with a particular emphasis on developing and evaluating tax reform proposals, overseeing the regulatory process, and negotiating tax treaties.

A major accomplishment during her tenure was her representation of U.S. interests in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) initiative to address Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS).

Other accomplishments at Treasury included:

• negotiating more than 100 intergovernmental agreements to implement the U.S. provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA),
• overseeing the development of more than 100 items of published guidance, including regulations to address tax inversions, and
• publishing in 2016 the first comprehensive update to the U.S. model income tax treaty in a decade.

Prior to Treasury, Rolfes was a partner with the tax and employee benefits law firm of Ivins, Phillips & Barker in Washington, D.C., where she advised multinational companies on international tax planning, controversy, and compliance matters, as well as tax accounting methods. She began her career as an accountant with Procter & Gamble at its Cincinnati headquarters.

Rolfes earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Wright State University in Ohio in 1997, a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 2002, and a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2005.