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Jo Habenicht

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Yomarie “Jo” Habenicht is an associate in the Firm’s Tax Department, specializing in U.S. federal, corporate, partnership and international tax matters.

Jo focuses her practice on tax structuring and planning for a variety of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, financings, cross-border transactions, restructurings, bankruptcy related transactions and joint ventures.

Her practice also includes providing day-to-day tax advice to domestic and foreign companies on a broad range of tax issues. Jo represents companies before the Internal Revenue Service and local tax authorities on tax examinations.

A co-chair of the Proskauer Women’s Alliance Steering Committee, Jo was selected to be a Protégée for Proskauer’s Women's Sponsorship Program, an initiative that champions high-performing mid-level and senior lawyers as emerging leaders.

Prior to joining Proskauer, Jo worked in the tax services department of a Big 4 accounting firm. She is fluent in Spanish.

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On October 23, 2019, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, signed legislation incorporating the federal Johnson Amendment into New York law. As previously described, the Johnson Amendment denies tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) to (and imposes excise taxes on) any organization that engages in political campaign activities. The new legislation amended section 1116 of New York Tax Law, which will now deny tax-exempt status for N.Y tax purposes to any organization that engages in political campaign activities, either on behalf or in opposition of any candidate for public office.

Introduction

On May 4, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that directs the executive branch to limit its enforcement of the “Johnson Amendment.” As previously reported, the Johnson Amendment prohibits organizations that are exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code from engaging in political campaign activities.¹ The executive order limits enforcement of the Johnson Amendment or any other adverse action against any individual or religious organization for speaking about moral or political issues from a religious perspective. The executive order is unlikely to have any meaningful practical effect because, as has been widely reported, the Johnson Amendment is not currently being enforced.

The executive order also directs the Secretaries of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to write regulations to address objections to the requirement in the Affordable Care Act that employers fund contraceptive health services for their employees.

While speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 2017, President Trump reaffirmed his commitment to repeal the law that restricts organizations that are tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) from engaging in political campaign activities. This law, enacted in 1954, is commonly known as the Johnson Amendment since it was proposed by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson.  During the breakfast, President Trump stated: “I will get rid and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution. I will do that.  Remember.”  This statement is in line with President Trump’s campaign promises.  In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Trump expressed his commitment to repeal the Johnson Amendment to provide freedom of speech to all Americans.