Alvarado Tax & Business Advisors, LLC (“ATBA”), formerly known as Zaragoza & Alvarado LLP, was founded on July 1, 2002, by CPA and Attorney Juan A. Alvarado and CPA Juan Zaragoza as a separate and specialized tax boutique firm. Both Juanes, as commonly referred to, were the tax partners of the tax office in Puerto Rico for Arthur Andersen, one of the U.S. big accounting firms at that time. The day after Arthur Andersen’s closure of their global offices, both tax partners emerged with a novel concept of a multidisciplinary tax and business advisory professional services company, unencumbered by the constraints of association with an auditing firm and the regulatory and disclosure rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission. And so, Zaragoza & Alvarado LLP was born.
The firm’s name was later changed to ATBA in late 2014 after one of its founding members, Juan Zaragoza, was appointed Secretary of Treasury for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. He re-joined ATBA in 2017 but left at the end of 2020 since he was elected Senator of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (2020).
Most ATBA professionals, including its current nine members and director, provided services on the Tax and Business Advisory Practices of one or more internationally certified public accounting firms. With nine members, with variable generations, it is the current tax department in Puerto Rico with the most highly-qualified members, resulting in a top heavy structure that redefines the market for providing professional tax and business advisory services. Such a structure is designed specifically to provide high-level tax consulting to its clients on a more personalized basis. The ATBA Members offer an unmatched level of public accounting, law, private industry, and Puerto Rico Treasury Department experience.
Managing and co-founding member, CPA and Attorney Juan Alvarado.
ATBA has four divisions: tax consulting and advisory services, government resolution services, outsourcing services, and business consulting services. All divisions work together to round clients’ tax and business needs. We cover all the bases, from tax preparation services to requests for tax exemptions; from accounting and payroll services to government tax debt resolution services; from tax audits to corporate restructuring. ATBA’s specialized client service team is ready to tackle and assist in the government tax maze.
Since our inception, the Firm has also been a key player in major legislative or regulatory projects carried out in Puerto Rico at both the State and Municipal levels, such as sales and use tax bills and regulations, tax reforms bills, and tax incentives regulations in Puerto Rico, among others.
Members of the firm from top to bottom and left to right shown are: César de Jesús, Carlos González, Felipe Mariani, Edgardo Sanabria, Rosirma García, Juan Alvarado and Elisa Vélez. Other member not shown is Corali del Llano
ATBA is also a member of Taxand, the first and largest global network of independent tax advisors. Taxand was created in 2005 by a respected group of premier independent tax firms from countries around the world who share a common vision of delivering seamless and responsive service to local and international clients. The preeminent network of Taxand has grown exponentially, and now has over 550 tax partners in 50 countries and more than 2,500 professionals serving the global marketplace.
