Profile
Layne is a partner in the firm of Jaffa Simmons with over 20 years of tax experience with large international publicly traded companies and in the tax department of an international accounting firm. Experience includes all areas of taxation including international tax planning and structuring; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; consolidated and multistate tax planning and income tax return preparation; vast audit experience in managing international, federal and state tax audits and appeals; providing leadership of the tax department, advising senior management and board members of tax related issues.

Layne is the current chairman of the Arizona Society of CPA’s Board of Directors and a member of the Executive Committee. He previously served as chairman of the Society’s Tax Legislative Committee, where as committee chairman he spoke before the Arizona Senate Finance Committee, the Arizona House Ways and Means Committee and Arizona House Commerce Committee explaining the Society’s proposed tax legislation. Layne is a  former member of the Board of Directors and a former President of the Arizona Chapter of Tax Executives Institute (TEI), the nation’s preeminent association of corporate tax professionals. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA). Prior to joining  Jaffa Simmons Layne was the Vice President of tax of Waste Services, Inc. Prior to that he was the Executive Director of Tax at Viad Corp., having worked prior to that in the Phoenix office of Deloitte & Touche.

Prior Professional Experience

Waste Sevices, Inc. Apr. 2004 –  Feb. 2006 (formerly Capital Environmental Resources, Inc. (WSII – NASDAQ) Vice President, Tax

Managed  and directed  corporate tax department (United States and Canada).

Member of acquisition committee, developed tax strategies and directly participated in the due diligence and structuring of all corporate acquisitions.

Directed overall corporate strategic tax planning including:

Layne also successfully helped advice and structure the corporate migration of the company from Canada to the United States, including creation of legal entities and structuring of the intercompany corporate debt.

He was in charge of tax portion of the “Sarbanes-Oxley” compliance implementation team.

Viad Corp 1989 – 2004 (formerly Dial Corp., formerly Greyhound Corp (VVI, MGI – NYSE) Executive Tax Director and Assistant Secretary (2001 – April, 2004)

Managed and directed corporate tax department of 10 professionals.

Member of corporate investment committee that approved all requests for capital in excess of $200,000.

Member of corporate investment portfolio committee that approved the strategic investment of the corporate 6 billion dollar investment portfolio. Directly participated in investing strategies to maximize after tax return (including alternative minimum tax) on investments.

Member of acquisition committee, developed tax strategies and directly participated in the due diligence and structuring of all corporate acquisitions ranging from a couple of million dollars to in excess of 500 million.

Directed overall corporate strategic tax planning including:

Successfully managed federal and state income tax audits, including representing the company in appeals/ settlement meetings with the Internal Revenue Service, Canadian Revenue Agency, Inland Revenue (U.K.) and numerous states.

Deloitte & Touche LLP 1985 – 1989 Senior Tax Accountant

Supervised tax return preparation of large consolidated corporate clients.

Involved in tax research and planning for a variety of clients.

Member of corporate tax group, gave several presentations on alternative minimum tax.

Education

University of Utah
Masters of Professional Accountancy (Specializing in Taxation)
June 1985

University of Utah
Bachelor of Arts (Accounting)
June 1984

Professional Associations :