Aaron D. Vera
Counsel
Areas of Focus
- Tax
- Oil & Gas
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Joint Ventures & Strategic Alliances
- Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage
- Investment Management
- Investment Management & Transactional Tax
- International Tax
- Tax Policy
- Renewable Energy
- Energy Transition
- Projects & Energy Transition
- Energy & Infrastructure
- Restructuring and Special Situations Tax
- Private Capital
- Concentrates on the tax aspects of complex business transactions across a variety of industries with an emphasis on United States federal income tax issues related to oil and gas along with tax matters involved in the energy transition.
- Extensive experience in legislative advocacy and federal income tax planning related to carbon capture and sequestration, as well as cross-border corporate finance.
Aaron D. Vera focuses his practice on resolving tax issues related to domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, tax credits, restructurings, financings and investments for public and private companies, as well as private equity funds.
Prior to joining Akin, Aaron worked as tax counsel at Exxon Mobil Corporation. Aaron provided tax advice to various company affiliates across the globe, including ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions and XTO Energy Inc., on cross-border, corporate, tax credit and partnership tax issues.
Along with tax matters related to a traditional oil and gas practice, Aaron also:
- Advised on the U.S. federal income tax aspects of international corporate financial arrangements involving foreign currency, affiliate and third-party lending, as well as capital structures; and
- Supported tax legislative and regulatory advocacy related to the Carbon Capture and Sequestration (“Section 45Q”) federal income tax credit, as well as certain international components of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Relatedly, Aaron is a recurrent panelist on Section 45Q implementation issues.
Aaron received his J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center, where he worked as a constitutional law teaching assistant and was a member of the Hispanic Law Students Association.
EducationJ.D., University of Houston Law Center, 2012
B.S., Texas A&M University, 2009
J.D., University of Houston Law Center, 2012
B.S., Texas A&M University, 2009
Bar AdmissionsTexas
Texas
- “US Inflation Reduction Act of 2023: Major Effects on Energy Investments,” University of Houston Law Center International Energy Tax Conference and Houston Business and Tax Law Journal Annual Symposium, March 2023.