The Glass Hammer features Viva Hammer as a Voice of Experience, read the full article here

Viva Hammer was featured  for her comments about applicable high-yield debt obligation (AHYDO) rules, and whether to extend the temporary relief from the AHYDO rules granted in Rev. Proc. 2008-51, during the banking committee lunch at the American Bar Association Section of Taxation fall meeting held in Chicago on September 25, 2009. Hammer has argued for restoration of section 1275(a)(4), which prevented debt cancellation income in reorganization exchanges of debt instruments.

Viva Hammer was featured for her thoughts on what hedge fund philanthropists should be aware of when rebuilding their charitable foundations under the watchful eye of the new federal government.

Viva Hammer was featured for her comments the need for an overhaul of the three major rating agencies.

According to Hammer, “Effective regulation will serve to make derivatives more transparent and will yield information that is actually used, rather than just creating more paperwork and cost…that regulation should be approached with an eye toward using the information to mitigate risk…I think the key about derivatives is that the underlying [asset] is not necessarily transparent. You need to make the thing that you’re betting on very, very clear.”

Viva Hammer was featured for her comments on Congress’s plan for tighter restrictions on tax policies as a result of recent reports of abusive offshore tax havens

Viva Hammer was featured in the ‘Tax’ section of The Hedge Fund Law Report, for her comments on including distressed debt in the securities trading safe harbor as outlined by the Treasury Department and the IRS.

Viva, along with Financial Services Group partner Bill O’Connor, were featured for their comments relating to discussions surrounding the SEC and European Regulators creating a public exchange for certain derivatives products in an effort to enhance market transparency.

For her comments on what some see as an unfair tax advantage for exchange-traded notes (ETN’s). The notes let investors buy a type of forward contract linked to commodities and assets, and holders are allowed to defer taxable income indefinitely. Hammer cautions that the proposed tax reform could have consequences. She states that “All taxable derivative contracts — a massive market — would be affected.”

Viva was featured for her comments about a new product introduced by Barclays that provides a favorable tax advantage over mutual funds which is being viewed by the mutual fund industry trade group as “unwarranted, unintended and unfair.