A quantitative practice for people whose decisions move the number. We connect technical tax analysis to the dollars, timing, and trade-offs that drive the decision, and where the answer turns on economics we pair the advice with a model that makes the consequences clear.
La Presa is led by Carlos A. Schmidt, MBT, MBA, CPA, former Partner and Global Head of Tax at Ares Management, where he built the tax function from three people to more than forty and structured the firm's IPO, its Up-C and tax receivable agreement, and its conversion to a C corporation. Before Ares he was a tax partner at Ernst & Young and at Deloitte's National Tax Office and Tax Director at Highbridge Capital Management. You work directly with the adviser responsible for your analysis.
Tax adviser on a $325 million capital solution for Authentic Restaurant Brands, a Garnett Station Partners portfolio company (September 2026).
Client names appear with permission. Other matters are described without names on the About page.
Fund sponsors negotiating a continuation vehicle. Family offices deciding how to hold a stake. Individuals with more at risk in a single tax year than most firms see in a decade. Different seats, same question: what does this structure cost after tax, and can someone show me?
We can. We build the model alongside the memo, and the two agree before either leaves the building: basis, liabilities, allocations, rates, timing, and the judgment calls that sit on top of them.
When a matter has six advisers on it, we run the play; we do not replace the team. Counsel, accountants, and bankers keep their roles, the tax analysis and the transaction economics stay aligned, and we bring the creative structure when the obvious one does not work.
Feeders, parallels, SMAs, and leveraged blockers, with the ECI, withholding, and §163(j) arithmetic run rather than assumed.
Manager M&A, continuation funds, Up-C IPOs, and tax receivable agreements, with the gain computed before anyone signs.
After-tax return comparisons, waterfalls, and basis roll-forwards built to committee standard, and the tax metrics a CFO should watch.
Opinions, family office, renewable energy, and controversy: all seven services
A position we cannot model is a position we do not yet understand.
Rates broke the refinancing math, and $875 billion of commercial and multifamily mortgages mature this year. We price the three ways out of a bad loan (modify it, hand back the keys, or bring in rescue capital) partner by partner on one office building, and find a trap in the rescue recap that one clause in the operating agreement fixes.
Under net CFC tested income, the old GILTI, a low-taxed plant’s U.S. tax can triple when it stands alone, and a high-taxed sister’s spare credits are what bring the group back. We work one portfolio through the 2026 rules, test Treasury’s September expense proposals, flag the states that part from the federal math, and set out three decisions for 2026 models.
A $10 million CLO equity investment pays $1 million of cash, ends the year marked at $9.5 million, and reports $1.4 million of taxable income. All three numbers can be right. Our special report follows the money from the issuer, through the fund, to the investor, and sets out what an approval package should require before the closing, the reset vote, or the exit.