Federal
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March 21, 2024
Man Faces Penalty After Debating Job Status, Tax Court Says
A Georgia man is responsible for a frivolous filing tax penalty after questioning his employment status, the U.S. Tax Court affirmed Thursday.
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March 21, 2024
UN Could Enhance Global Tax Agenda Setting, Officials Say
The United Nations could play an important role in shaping the agenda for global tax negotiations so it better reflects the priorities and concerns of developing countries, a variety of tax officials said Thursday during a conference.
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March 21, 2024
7th Circ. Won't Let Admitted Fraudster Ditch $1.3M Restitution
A woman who admitted to wire fraud in connection with a three-person scheme to file hundreds of false tax returns owes $1.3 million in restitution to the government, the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday, rejecting the woman's claim that the amount was miscalculated.
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March 21, 2024
IRS Proposes Exceptions For 3rd-Party Summons Notices
The IRS proposed rules Thursday that would allow some exceptions to a requirement that the agency notify taxpayers within 45 days before issuing summonses to third parties in tax assessment and collection cases, including for certain time-sensitive examinations.
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March 21, 2024
Wyden Probes Swiss Bank's Ties To Billionaire Under Scrutiny
The Senate Finance Committee's Democratic majority launched an inquiry into Swiss bank Pictet Group's involvement with a U.S. billionaire under criminal investigation, raising questions about the bank's deferred prosecution agreement and $123 million fine by the U.S. Justice Department, committee Chairman Ron Wyden announced Thursday.
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March 21, 2024
Quintairos Prieto Taps Atlanta Atty To Lead New Tax Group
Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer PA said it had created a tax division that will be led by an Atlanta-based partner who has guided clients on civil and criminal tax law, reinforcing its national expertise in litigation, regulatory and corporate law matters.
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March 21, 2024
H&R Block Challenges FTC Judges In False Ad Battle
H&R Block asked a Missouri federal court to stop administrative law judges from overseeing a Federal Trade Commission proceeding that accuses the tax preparation company of deceptive advertising, claiming the judges have job protections that unconstitutionally shield them from presidential oversight.
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March 21, 2024
Senate Bill Seeks To End Tax-Free Merger Treatment
A bill introduced Thursday in the U.S. Senate would end manipulation of the Internal Revenue Code that allows certain corporate mergers to be tax-free.
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March 21, 2024
IRS Tweaks Proposed Partnership Treatment Rules
The Internal Revenue Service issued a correction notice Thursday fixing a reference in proposed regulations about the treatment of related people within partnerships.
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March 21, 2024
IRS Issues Fixes In Safe Harbor Regulations
The Internal Revenue Service issued two correction notices Thursday to amend final regulations focused on certain safe harbor exceptions.
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March 20, 2024
Endo Plan To Trim $5B In Debt Confirmed By NY Judge
Drugmaker Endo International got a New York bankruptcy judge's approval for its Chapter 11 plan that aims to cut more than $5 billion in debt and hand over ownership to its lenders, roughly a month after it finalized a $465 million deal to resolve criminal and civil opioid claims.
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March 20, 2024
Wyden Bill Would Target Abuse Of Annuity Trusts
A bill introduced Wednesday by the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would attempt to limit the abuse of a type of annuity trusts by the wealthy, in part by imposing a requirement that the instruments have a minimum term of at least 15 years.
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March 20, 2024
IRS Releases Foreign Housing Expense Limits For 2024
The Internal Revenue Service released adjustments to the limitation on foreign housing expense deductions and exclusions for 2024 on Wednesday.
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March 20, 2024
IRS Asks Justices To Scrap Couple's Late-Filed Tax Court Suit
The IRS asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider reversing the Third Circuit's revival of a couple's challenge to their tax bill, saying the appeals court incorrectly concluded that a 90-day deadline for petitioning the U.S. Tax Court need not always be met.
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March 20, 2024
RI Ex-Broker Gets 8 Years In Ponzi Scheme
A Rhode Island man was sentenced to eight years in prison for running a decade-long Ponzi scheme to defraud investors and to evade his taxes.
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March 20, 2024
How The Supreme Court Could Narrow Chevron
After hours of oral argument in a closely watched administrative law case, it appeared that some U.S. Supreme Court justices could be open to limiting the opportunities for lower courts to defer to federal agencies' legal interpretations in disputes over rulemaking — and legal experts said there are a number of ways they could do it.
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March 20, 2024
IRS Withholding Docs On Partnership Audits, Baker Atty Says
The Internal Revenue Service has not responded to a request for documents pertaining to the agency's scrutiny of large partnerships and should be forced to disclose them, an attorney with Baker McKenzie told a D.C. federal court.
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March 20, 2024
IRS Grants Income Exclusion To Those Fleeing 6 Countries
Individuals who fled conditions in Ukraine, Belarus, Sudan, Haiti, Niger and Iraq after specific dates in 2023 can exclude foreign earned income, and can exclude or deduct housing costs, from gross income that year because of adverse conditions in the countries, the IRS said.
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March 20, 2024
Law360 Announces The Members Of Its 2024 Editorial Boards
Law360 is pleased to announce the formation of its 2024 Editorial Advisory Boards.
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March 20, 2024
King & Spalding Adds Ex-PwC Tax Pro As Partner In NY
An experienced tax attorney has joined King & Spalding LLP in New York after working at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for six years.
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March 19, 2024
US Climate Law's Clean Energy Credit Requests Reach 45K
About 500 entities have requested registration numbers for more than 45,500 projects that aim to use the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy tax credits, the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of the Treasury said Tuesday.
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March 19, 2024
ABA Tax Section Seeks Revised Donor-Advised Fund Rules
The U.S. Treasury Department should revise excise tax rules for certain distributions from donor-advised funds in a manner that is consistent with regulations governing similar funds and that doesn't duplicate existing tax penalties, the American Bar Association Tax Section said.
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March 19, 2024
Staffing Co. Owner Gets 4 Years For Hiring Untaxed Labor
The owner of a staffing company in Key West, Florida, that hired untaxed and unauthorized workers was sentenced by a Florida federal judge to four years in prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution to the U.S. government, according to court documents.
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March 19, 2024
GILTI Figures Into CFC Applicability Project, Official Says
The U.S. global intangible low-taxed income system is factoring into continuing Internal Revenue Service work on whether a tax code provision limiting corporations from offsetting income with net operating or other tax losses after ownership changes applies to controlled foreign corporations, an agency official said Tuesday.
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March 19, 2024
Pension Plan Segment Rates Increase In March
Segment rates for calculating pension plan funding rose in March, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.
Expert Analysis
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US-India Advance Pricing Resolutions Should Reassure Cos.
The United States' and India's tax authorities' recent resolution of a significant number of pending advance pricing agreements should reduce taxpayer uncertainty, reassure companies of the nations' good working relationship and improve India's investment environment, say Miller Williams and Caroline Setliffe at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Reimagining Benefits For A World Without Noncompetes
Though the Federal Trade Commission's recently proposed noncompete ban is still in its infancy, companies should begin considering whether they would need to retool their payment and benefits packages to comply, while still protecting their competitive edge, say Melissa Ostrower and Alec Nealon at Jackson Lewis.
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A Closer Look At Rep. Santos' Claims And Potential Charges
Skadden partner and former federal prosecutor Maria Cruz Melendez discusses Rep. George Santos' legal exposure following his alleged misrepresentations and the possible scope of investigations into his conduct — noting that if history is any indication, the congressman could face prison time if convicted.
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Stock Buyback Excise Tax Guidance A Mixed Bag For SPACs
Recent IRS guidance on the new stock repurchase excise tax includes a welcome exception for publicly traded special-purpose acquisition companies but does not exclude redemptions in connection with a de-SPAC transaction, and further guidance is needed to clarify ambiguities around the exception's application, say Olga Bogush and Evgeny Magidenko at ArentFox Schiff.
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Crypto Coverage After FTX Fall: Accountant And Atty Liability
The recent fall of cryptocurrency firm FTX highlights complexities regarding accounting and tax reporting for digital assets, and reveals lawyers’ potential liability exposure when providing services to crypto firms — as a result, insurers may face unintended vulnerabilities related to this nebulous landscape, say Anjali Das and Farzana Ahmed at Wilson Elser.
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The Forces Defining Sales Tax Policy And Compliance In 2023
In the coming year, expect to see tax policymakers grapple with the complexity of state and local tax compliance, cryptocurrency, metaverse transactions, and more, says Scott Peterson at Avalara.
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Inflation Reduction Act's Methane Tax May Be Unenforceable
Recent legislation directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose a first-ever direct charge on methane emissions from oil and gas operations — but two fundamental problems with the formula for calculating this tax could make it impossible for the EPA to implement, say Poe Leggette and Bailey Bridges at BakerHostetler.
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Atty-Client Privilege Arguments Give Justices A Moving Target
Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case regarding the scope of the attorney-client privilege appeared to raise more questions about multipurpose counsel communications than they answered, as the parties presented shifting iterations of a predictable, easily applied test for evaluating the communications' purpose, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.
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Industry Takeaways From IRS Guidance On EV Tax Credits
The IRS and U.S. Department of the Treasury’s recently issued documents on tax credit eligibility for clean vehicle purchases showcases three important points for the electric vehicle industry, including emphasis on the importance of in-service dates, guidance on how leased vehicles could be evaluated, and insight into manufacturing requirements, says Levi McAllister at Morgan Lewis.
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States Must Align Distribution Age Rules With Secure 2.0
To prevent unintended escheatment of retirement benefits, states will need to undertake legislative efforts to amend unclaimed property standards that conflict with the Secure 2.0 Act's required minimum distribution age increases, says Michael Giovannini at Alston & Bird.
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The IRS' APA Rulemaking Journey: There And Back Again
Attorneys at Dentons examine recent challenges in which taxpayers successfully argued Internal Revenue Service rulemaking was invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act, how tax exceptionalism and U.S. Supreme Court regulatory deference prompted such challenges, and similar challenges the agency will likely face following this line of cases.
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Tax Court Ruling Should Allay Post-Boechler Concerns
An unusually long U.S. Tax Court ruling in Hallmark Research Collective v. Commissioner, confirming that deficiency deadlines are jurisdictional, should reassure practitioners concerned about the statutory time limit implications of last year's U.S. Supreme Court Boechler v. Commissioner ruling and reaffirm the vital role of the Tax Court itself, says James Creech at Baker Tilly.
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Unpacking The Interim Guidance On New Stock Buyback Tax
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service's recent notice on applying the newly effective excise tax on stock repurchases provides much-needed clarity on the tax's scope, which is much broader than anticipated given its underlying policy rationale, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.