Michael T. Fatale is the Deputy General Counsel at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) where he has been employed since 1992. Previously he was for nearly ten years the Chief of DOR’s Rulings and Regulations Bureau, and prior to that he was a tax counsel. Fatale is the primary author of numerous state tax regulations and other DOR pronouncements, and has litigated or co-litigated several high-profile DOR cases. He is the author of several law review articles on constitutional and federal preemption law that have been cited in various state tax cases, including cases decided by the Ohio, Iowa and West Virginia Supreme Courts and the New Mexico and California Courts of Appeal. For 2015, he received “honorable mention” as the state tax government person of the year from the Tax Analysts’ publication State Tax Notes. In 2012, he was awarded the Paull Mines Award for Outstanding Contribution to State Tax Jurisprudence by the Multistate Tax Commission. In 2005, The Boston Globe reported on his leadership role in obtaining a large settlement in a bankruptcy case on behalf of eighteen states (“Hooray for the Taxman”). Fatale speaks frequently at state tax conferences, has previously been a guest lecturer at Georgetown University Law School, and is an instructor of state corporate income tax in a training program offered by the Multistate Tax Commission. Fatale worked in private practice before joining DOR and holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and a law degree, cum laude, from Boston College Law School.
