Georgetown Law

Karl Frieden is the Vice President and General Counsel of the Council On State Taxation (COST). His responsibilities at COST include writing amicus briefs for cases at state Supreme Courts and the U.S. Supreme Court; working on state and local tax-related legislation and tax policy issues with business and government groups and State Legislatures; and speaking at state tax forums throughout the U.S. Prior to joining COST, Karl was a state and local tax partner with Ernst & Young, and before that a state and local tax partner with Arthur Andersen. Earlier in his career, he was the Deputy General Counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Karl has had extensive experience with most types of state and local taxes and with global indirect taxes including VAT and withholding taxes. Karl has spoken on state and local and global indirect tax issues at business, academic, government and tax policy forums in the US, Europe and Asia. On numerous occasions, he has testified before state legislative committees and US Congressional committees on state tax policy issues. He has written numerous articles on state and local tax and global indirect tax issues. Karl is the author of the book Cybertaxation: The Taxation of E-Commerce, CCH Publishers, 2000.