Federal
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February 28, 2024
Amgen Seeks Dismissal Of Investor Action Over $11B Tax Bill
Amgen had no obligation to disclose specific amounts of proposed adjustments to its taxes, the company told a New York federal court as it again demanded dismissal of a proposed class action alleging the company hid a $10.7 billion tax bill from investors.
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February 28, 2024
Embattled Philly Loan Biz Principals Hit With RICO Charges
Legal troubles for the principals of Philadelphia's Par Funding cash advance company are mounting as federal prosecutors hit them with a new indictment adding Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act allegations on top of existing charges that the principals bilked investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and threatened violence against borrowers.
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February 28, 2024
COVID Fraud Jury Can't Hear Of Gov't's Loan Error, Feds Say
A jury shouldn't be shown evidence of the U.S. government's error in approving a Michigan business owner's application for a Paycheck Protection Program loan while he was under indictment, federal prosecutors have argued.
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February 28, 2024
Timeline Rule For Assessing Tax Not Retroactive, Court Says
A former corporate executive who received a $26 million buyout and then rolled the proceeds over to a retirement account incorrectly claimed that an amended statute of limitations exempted him from paying a penalty, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday.
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February 28, 2024
GOP Reps. Press IRS On Backdating Forms In Easement Case
Two House Republican tax writers pressed the Internal Revenue Service for details on how it would prevent agency employees from inappropriately backdating official tax documents after the agency admitted last year to doing so in a high-profiled suit involving conservation easement penalty forms.
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February 28, 2024
Divorced Woman Can Get Spousal Relief, Tax Court Says
A divorced woman has satisfied the requirements for innocent spousal relief despite an attempt by her ex-husband to refute her claim, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday.
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February 28, 2024
IRS Delays Tax Deadlines After Wash. Wildfires
Certain taxpayers in Washington state will have extra time to file tax returns and make payments following wildfires last year, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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February 28, 2024
Court Should Block IRS 'Fishing Expedition,' Company Says
A company that claims it has been the victim of an Internal Revenue Service "fishing expedition" after being hit with a raft of document requests urged a Georgia federal judge Tuesday to keep alive its bid to quash the summonses, telling the court the government overstepped its bounds in seeking "a wide variety of duplicative, irrelevant, and unrelated information."
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February 28, 2024
Stalled Pillar 1 Raises Specter Of EU Digital Tax
The stalling at the international level of a redistribution of taxing rights known as Pillar One is raising questions about whether the European Union would revive a digital tax, which it had put aside hoping Pillar One would succeed.
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February 28, 2024
IRS To Hold Hearing On Donor-Advised Fund Excise Tax Regs
The Internal Revenue Service will hold a public hearing in May on proposed regulations regarding excise taxes on certain taxable distributions made from donor-advised funds, the agency announced Wednesday.
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February 28, 2024
IRS Adds 36 Tax Court Sessions To Calendar
The Internal Revenue Service named calendar administrators for 36 U.S. Tax Court sessions in March, April and May on Wednesday, bringing the total number of upcoming sessions to 72.
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February 27, 2024
TaxAct Filers Ink $23M Deal Over Meta, Google Info Sharing
TaxAct Inc. customers have asked a California federal judge to greenlight a settlement they say is worth more than $23 million and would resolve class claims accusing the tax preparation company of secretly sharing confidential taxpayer information with Meta Platforms Inc. and Google.
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February 27, 2024
US Biz Group Urges Treasury Against Basis Denial Rule
The U.S. Treasury Department should rethink its proposed upcoming rule that would deny the basis that U.S. companies have in particular foreign affiliates involved in certain inbound transactions, the National Foreign Trade Council said in a letter made public Tuesday.
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February 27, 2024
IRS Opens Free E-File Pilot To More New Users
The Internal Revenue Service temporarily reopened its free electronic filing pilot program to more new users Tuesday in the 12 states where taxpayers can participate, an agency official said in a statement.
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February 27, 2024
IRS Hires 2 To Lead Digital Asset Efforts
The Internal Revenue Service hired two staffers to assist with forming the agency's approach to cryptocurrency and other digital assets, the agency announced Tuesday.
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February 27, 2024
IRS Delays Deadlines For San Diego Storm Victims
Certain deadlines for San Diego-area taxpayers have been postponed following severe storms and flooding in the area, the Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday.
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February 27, 2024
Tax Court Couldn't Rule On Whistleblower Claims, Circ. Told
The U.S. Tax Court lacked authority to rule on two of a tipster's three claims that the IRS should have given him a whistleblower award, the government told the D.C. Circuit, urging it to vacate a decision even though it upheld the agency's denial of the payout requests.
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February 27, 2024
DOL Finalizing ERISA Voluntary Correction Program Changes
A top official with the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm said Tuesday that the agency expects to soon finalize changes to a program allowing retirement plan managers to voluntarily self-correct when they fail to forward employee contributions on time or make other transaction errors.
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February 27, 2024
IRS Nixes Digital Filing Of Form For Foreigners For 2 Years
Certain withholding agents will not be required to electronically file a form relating to U.S.-based income of foreigners in 2024 and 2025, the Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday.
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February 26, 2024
Ex-Bank CFO Cops To $700K Theft And Life Insurance Scam
An ex-Eastern International Bank chief financial officer has pled guilty to defrauding the bank out of more than $700,000 to pay his personal expenses, and he admitted to opening life insurance policies in the names of bank employees to benefit his wife, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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February 26, 2024
US Can Bring Quick Appeal In Donor Reporting Rule Fight
The federal government can immediately appeal a ruling that would require it to prove a strong governmental interest in forcing nonprofits to report their major donors, an Ohio federal court decided Monday, saying there's significant room for a difference of opinion on the matter.
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February 26, 2024
Wealth Taxes Bring In Small Part Of G20 Revenue, Oxfam Says
Roughly 8% of tax revenue collected by Group of 20 countries is raised from wealth taxes on average, compared with over 32% from taxes on goods and services, anti-poverty group Oxfam said Monday ahead of a G20 meeting in Brazil.
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February 26, 2024
Inmate, 8 Others Charged In Trafficking, Tax Fraud Schemes
A California prison inmate has been charged along with eight other individuals with operating two separate illegal schemes: one to distribute methamphetamine and another to fraudulently claim over $550 million in COVID-19-based tax credits.
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February 26, 2024
More Analysis Needed In Lithium Pricing Guide, Groups Say
Functional analysis of multinational corporate groups should be included in a list of factors that could highly influence market prices within a transfer pricing framework for lithium, industry groups and accountants told the OECD in letters published Monday.
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February 26, 2024
Estate Correctly Taxed On Insurance Payout, Justices Told
The U.S. Supreme Court should affirm a decision denying a tax refund to the estate of an owner of a building materials company that used a payout from his $3.5 million life insurance policy to purchase his shares in the business, the federal government argued.
Expert Analysis
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Clean Hydrogen Developers Should Track Incentives, Risks
Clean hydrogen project developers and investors should be aware of new funding opportunities from the U.S. Department of Energy and tax benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act, but must also guard against risks associated with new and evolving technologies, say Pamela Wu and Kirstin Gibbs at Morgan Lewis.
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IRS Starts Clock On Energy Projects' Labor Rule Exemption
A U.S. Department of the Treasury notice published this week started the 60-day clock for clean energy projects seeking to be grandfathered from having to meet new labor requirements to qualify for enhanced tax credits, and uncertainty about how the provisions will apply should be incentive for some investors to begin construction soon, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Foreign Tax Credit Proposal Is Some Help, But More Is Needed
New foreign tax credit regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department provided some measure of relief on cost recovery and royalty withholding, two of the most troublesome aspects of the 2021 final foreign tax credit regulations, but the final regulations are still harmful to many taxpayers, making litigation inevitable, say attorneys at Fenwick.
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Anticipating The New Congress' Private Sector Investigations
With Republicans claiming a new majority in the House of Representatives in the upcoming Congress, corporates and individuals should expect a sea change in Congress' investigative priorities and areas of focus — and private sector entities can take prudential steps in the near term to best prepare for and mitigate risk, say attorneys at Latham.
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Tax Equity Requires Reinstating The Home Office Deduction
Congress should restore the home office deduction for W-2 workers in the interest of tax equity because permanently remote workers now bear the cost of creating quiet, dedicated work spaces, a pandemic-related shift unforeseen when the deduction was eliminated by 2017's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, say James Mahon and Samantha Lesser at Becker.
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Keys To IRA Tax Breaks For US Green Energy, EV Production
The Inflation Reduction Act includes three powerful tax incentives for domestic production of renewable energy projects and electric vehicles — but there are key questions that investors and manufacturers must ask when evaluating whether they can take advantage of these incentives, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Crypto Case Failed To Clarify Taxation Of Staking Rewards
A Tennessee federal court's recent dismissal of Jarrett v. U.S. — after the IRS issued a refund for taxes paid on cryptocurrency and mooted a greater question about the tax treatment of staking rewards — leaves the crypto industry in need of guidance on the IRS’ position, say attorneys at Cadwalader.
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How The IRS May Define 'Clean Hydrogen'
The Internal Revenue Service is still taking comments on how to define "clean hydrogen" for purposes of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, but developers can look to the IRA's legislative history — as well as the European Union's struggle to define "green hydrogen" — as guideposts, says Ben Reiter at Nixon Peabody.
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What To Expect From The Post-Midterms Lame-Duck Session
Depending on the results of the midterm elections, the upcoming lame-duck session may be the last chance for Congress to enact meaningful legislation for the next several years, so organizations must push through legislative priorities now, lest they are forced to restart their efforts in a much different environment next year, says James Brandell at Dykema.
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IRS' Tax Gap Statistics Don't Paint A Full Compliance Picture
The Internal Revenue Service's recent report indicating a widening tax gap sheds important light on tax compliance, underlines key pressure points and provides insights into how tax administration could be improved; but tax gap estimates also have their limits, says Joyce Beebe at Rice University.
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Labor Rules Will Unlock IRA Tax Credits' Full Value
Companies that make sure to follow the Inflation Reduction Act's unique labor rules will be in the best position to unlock the law's tremendous tax incentives aimed at promoting renewable energy, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging carbon sequestration, say Nicole Elliott and Timothy Taylor at Holland & Knight.
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Making The Most Of New Tax Credits For EV Charging Stations
The Inflation Reduction Act recently extended, expanded and renewed the tax credits available for electric vehicle charging station projects — but developers must navigate new challenges, including geographic and prevailing wage requirements, to take full advantage of the updated credits, says James English at Clark Hill.
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Key Income Tax Issues Triggered By Remote Employees
A host of fact-specific tax determinations arise in connection with remote work arrangements, from defining working-condition fringe benefit exclusions to nexus-dependent state withholding obligations, complicating compliance for corporate tax counsel and human resources professionals, say Thomas Cryan and Spencer Walters at Ivins Phillips.