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Jeffery S. Trinca

Vice President

Jeff Trinca has built his practice around a government activity that most people, even most lobbyists, find impossibly arcane and vaguely sinister—taxation. The result? No-one knows tax administration and policy better than Mr. Trinca, one of the founding Vice Presidents of Van Scoyoc Associates.

“I believe people underestimate the link between knowledge and success in this town,” he said. “You hear a lot about campaign contributions and wining-and-dining in the press, but my understanding of tax administration is my most important political currency.”

During nearly 20 years with Van Scoyoc Associates, Mr. Trinca has represented clients with sundry issues before the Federal Government.  But he’s the first to note that taxes are his specialty. Mr. Trinca has played a major role in the ebb and flow of taxation policy since the Reagan Administration, first working within government on Capitol Hill and now helping others deal with the Federal Government.

At Van Scoyoc Associates, Mr. Trinca’s clients have been concerned with every aspect of how the Internal Revenue Service functions, from computer modernization to collection policies. Mr. Trinca played a key role in effecting subtle differences in tax policy or administration that reduced these firms’ tax liabilities by millions of dollars.

Mr. Trinca’s success doesn’t depend on flashy presentations, designed mostly to impress clients, or on big-name associates, who disappear when the real work starts. He understands and thrives on the arcana that ultimately determine who wins and who loses in the constant struggle over apportioning taxes among industries, interests, and regions.

When other lobbyists want someone who knows tax administration inside-out, they seek out Mr. Trinca. The business community knows and values Mr. Trinca’s ability to build coalitions among divergent interest groups and to work cooperatively with other government representation firms. During the Clinton Administration, for example, he served as Chief of Staff for the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service, producing a reform plan adopted by Congress and signed into law in July 1998. The Wall Street Journal praised the reform’s “common-sense suggestions.”

Mr. Trinca learned about taxation issues from the ground up. He served as Tax Counsel for then-Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., for five years and staffed Sen. Pryor’s Finance Subcommittee on Private Retirement Plans and Oversight of the Internal Revenue Service. As such, he has worked with and mentored a generation of Hill staffers who now set policy for the IRS.

During his time on the Hill, Mr. Trinca provided advice and counsel on all tax and budget bills working their way through Congress, including the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989, and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990.

Mr. Trinca helped draft and develop legislative strategy for the Omnibus Taxpayers Bill of Rights Act, the Internal Revenue Code Penalty Reform Act, and the Employee Benefit Simplification Act.

Mr. Trinca is a native of California, but he has traveled widely, even as a young man. He received his juris doctorate from The George Washington University National Law Center in Washington, D.C., and he is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. His Bachelor of Arts Degree in Oriental History, with special emphasis on Japan, is from the University of California, Davis. As an undergraduate, Mr. Trinca lived and studied at the International Christian University in Tokyo, where he immersed himself in an intensive program on Japan’s language, history, and culture.