HAGAI ZAIFMAN is a partner in the New York office and a member of the firm’s Tax practice. Hagai is a leading practitioner in the renewable energy tax space, working closely with Sidley’s Energy and Project Finance and Infrastructure practices.
Hagai advises sponsors, leading private equity and strategic investors and lenders in connection with wind, solar, hydroelectric, hydro fuel cell, carbon capture and other alternative energy projects, as well as conventional power generation facilities.
Hagai has extensive experience structuring, planning and negotiating infrastructure and renewable energy transactions, with particular emphasis on tax equity financing through flip partnerships and leases, projects’ development, repowering transactions and dispositions, including advising on the qualification of projects for the various available tax credits, as the IRC Section 45 production tax credits (PTC) and IRC Section 48 investment tax credits (ITC).
Hagai also has significant experience with the carbon capture and sequestration tax credit under IRC section 45Q and the new markets tax credit (NMTC) under IRC section 45D.
Prior to joining Sidley, Hagai was a partner in the tax group at another global law firm where he led its tax equity practice. Prior to that, Hagai worked at General Electric Capital (GE) where he served in several tax leadership roles, including as the Tax Director at GE Energy Financial Services (GE EFS), one of the leading investors in renewable energy projects in the US. In this role, Hagai led the GE EFS tax team and oversaw all the tax aspects of the business, including underwriting, structuring, investing, managing and disposing of US$10+ billion debt and equity portfolio of US and foreign wind and solar projects.