Federal
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March 03, 2023
Nonprofit Urges Justices To Curb 'Avaricious' Takings
Minnesota's "avaricious" practice of allowing local governments to keep the surplus proceeds from seized property to satisfy a smaller debt violates the Fifth Amendment's takings clause, attorneys for the Atlantic Legal Foundation told the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
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March 03, 2023
Treasury Working On Easement Law Guidance, Official Says
The U.S. Department of the Treasury is working to issue guidance by April 28 on how taxpayers can amend conservation easement deeds to align with a new law that limits charitable tax deductions for partnership-donated easements, an official said Friday.
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March 03, 2023
Easement LLC Sale Gains Ruled Ordinary Income
Gains earned by a seller of interests in limited liability companies that engage in easement donation transactions counts as ordinary income, the Internal Revenue Service said in a memorandum released Friday.
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March 03, 2023
TurboTax User In Privacy Suit Says Co. Won't Share Evidence
Intuit is refusing to hand over log-in records for its TurboTax website that the company claims forbid a proposed class action accusing Intuit of illegally sharing users' video histories with Facebook, the user who filed the suit told an Illinois federal court.
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March 03, 2023
Taxation With Representation: Wachtell, Vinson, Cravath
In this week's Taxation With Representation, LKQ Corp. will acquire Uni-Select Inc., Baytex Energy Corp. agreed to buy Ranger Oil Corp., and Radius Global Infrastructure Inc. is to be acquired by EQT Partners and a Canadian pension fund.
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March 03, 2023
Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin
The Internal Revenue Service released its weekly bulletin, which included a revenue ruling stating that the short-term applicable federal rate for income tax purposes increased in March, while other rates declined.
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March 03, 2023
Water Rights Count As Real Property, IRS Says
Several ranch owners' rights to divert river water during a certain time of year constitutes real property for the purposes of a tax code statute on like-kind exchanges, the Internal Revenue Service said in a private letter ruling released Friday.
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March 03, 2023
IRS To Accept Applications For Low-Income Tax Clinic Grants
The Internal Revenue Service will start accepting applications for supplemental low-income taxpayer clinic grants for 2023 on Tuesday, the agency said Friday.
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March 02, 2023
Senate's Tax Whistleblower Bill Would Secure Rewards
Whistleblowers who report tax cheats to the Internal Revenue Service would see expanded protections, including a presumption of anonymity in court and guaranteed reward amounts, under a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
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March 02, 2023
GOP Reps. Press IRS For Details On Tax Info Disclosure
Two House of Representatives lawmakers pressed the Internal Revenue Service for answers Thursday on a pair of 2022 disclosures of confidential taxpayer data from business income tax returns that nonprofits use, including names and business contact details.
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March 02, 2023
Treasury Urged To Toss 'Look-Through' Ownership Proposal
Treasury should scrap proposed rules that would, in a manner of speaking, look through ownership structures to determine whether real estate investment entities are domestically controlled — a status that includes certain tax exemptions for foreign shareholders, the American Bar Association's Tax Section recommended.
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March 02, 2023
IRS Can't Review Most Penalties Imposed In $2.2M FBAR Case
The Internal Revenue Service cannot review the bulk of penalties it assessed in a $2.2 million case against a taxpayer for failing to report his foreign bank accounts, an Arizona federal court has ruled.
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March 02, 2023
Calif. Man's Education Credit Claim Denied By Tax Court
A California man isn't entitled to tax credits for educational expenses for 2016 because he didn't satisfy the court that he paid the expenses for which the credits were taken, the U.S. Tax Court said Thursday.
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March 02, 2023
Belize Co. Not Entitled To US Exemption, Tax Court Says
A Belize-based seller of annuity contracts doesn't qualify for a U.S. tax exemption because its gross receipts exceeded the $600,000 statutory threshold for life insurance companies seeking exemption, the U.S. Tax Court said Thursday.
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March 02, 2023
Sens. Urge White House To Pursue Tax Treaty With Taiwan
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators announced legislation Thursday pushing for the administration of President Joe Biden to negotiate a tax treaty with Taiwan, an agreement they said would strengthen economic ties with the self-governing island.
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March 02, 2023
Calif. Man Owes $3K Deficiency For 2017, Tax Court Says
A California man owes a tax deficiency of just more than $3,000 for 2017 because just under $34,000 he received was taxable income, the U.S. Tax Court said Thursday.
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March 02, 2023
Senate Tax Panel Approves Biden's IRS Commissioner Pick
The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday approved President Joe Biden's nomination of former acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel to lead the agency, clearing the path for a full Senate vote.
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March 02, 2023
Justices Urged To Review Full Payment Rule For Tax Suits
The U.S. Supreme Court should revisit a rule it endorsed in 1960 requiring that people pay the full amount of their taxes owed before they challenge the liability in federal district court, a Florida man told the justices.
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March 02, 2023
JCT Got $24B In Refund Cases To Review In 2021, 2022
The Joint Committee On Taxation was tasked with reviewing refunds cumulatively worth over $24 billion in 2021 and 2022, the committee said in a report released Thursday.
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March 02, 2023
Ex-IBM Worker Drops $265M Whistleblower Suit Over IRS Deal
A former IBM employee who accused the software giant of tricking the IRS into buying $265 million of its products dropped his case after a decade of litigation aimed at whistleblowing, according to documents filed in D.C. federal court.
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March 02, 2023
New Easement Law May Render IRS Reporting Rule Unneeded
A new law authorizing the IRS to limit deductions for so-called syndicated conservation easements may undercut the usefulness of a proposed regulation that would mandate reporting for such transactions, some experts said, while others said the measures may work well in tandem.
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March 02, 2023
US Auto Cos. Look To Clear Obstacles To Fully Electric Future
As Michigan’s automakers pledge to invest billions into domestic battery factories, industry lawyers say there are still plenty of compliance hurdles to overcome before the country can fully embrace an electrification renaissance.
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March 02, 2023
IRS Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Gets 8 More Members
The Internal Revenue Service's Taxpayer Advocacy Panel has another eight new members for 2023 to advise the agency on its customer service and satisfaction, the IRS said Thursday.
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April 01, 2022
IRS Adds New Members To Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
The Internal Revenue Service's Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will welcome 25 new members in 2022 to advise the agency on its customer service and satisfaction, the IRS said Friday.
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March 01, 2023
3 Takeaways From The Supreme Court's Opinion In Del. v. Pa.
The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision awarding jurisdiction of more than $300 million in abandoned MoneyGram checks to states challenging Delaware offered guidelines about which financial instruments are governed by a 1974 federal unclaimed property law, but still left key questions unanswered. Here, Law360 offers three key takeaways from the decision in Delaware v. Pennsylvania.
Expert Analysis
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3 Contract Considerations For Renewable Fuels Trade
As renewable fuels continue to develop and contracts for their sale and purchase become more common in the energy industry, companies should think about negotiating several key issues when entering into offtake agreements for feedstock purchase transactions, says Nneka Obiokoye at Holland & Knight.
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What Microcaptive Reporting Ruling May Mean For The IRS
In CIC v. Internal Revenue Service, a Tennessee federal court’s decision to set aside an IRS requirement to disclose microcaptive insurance arrangements may be a step toward evidentiary standards to show that the potential for abuse in a lawful transaction is sufficient to support heightened disclosure requirements, says Samuel Lauricia at Weston Hurd.
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Avoiding Surprise Taxation Of Employment Settlements
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Sandra Cohen at Cohen & Buckmann discusses how to avoid unwelcome tax-related payments in connection with settling an employment claim, as the extra cost can significantly decrease the perceived value of an offer and push the parties further apart.
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US Should Leverage Tax Rules To Deter Business With Russia
The U.S. should further restrict the flow of resources available for the Putin regime's war in Ukraine by denying U.S. businesses that operate in Russia or Belarus foreign tax credits and global intangible low-taxed income preferences, and by terminating its tax treaty with Russia, says Reuven Avi-Yonah at University of Michigan Law School.
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Justices Must Apply Law Evenly In Shadow Docket Rulings
In recent shadow docket decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has inconsistently applied the requirement that parties demonstrate irreparable harm to obtain injunctive relief, which is problematic for two separate but related reasons, says David Hopkins at Benesch.
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Federal Cannabis Bill Needs A Regulatory Plan To Succeed
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, is laudable but fundamentally flawed because it lacks a robust regulatory plan that would allow for bipartisan support, says Andrew Kline at Perkins Coie.
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To Capture All Digital Transactions, Tax Rules Must Keep Up
Legislative efforts to capture revenue from digital-transaction income can do better than the American Rescue Plan Act, which recently went into effect but employs definitions that have already been surpassed by technology, says Matthew Agramonte at Shutts & Bowen.
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Lessons From Recent PPP Loan And COVID Fraud Cases
Following President Joe Biden's recent pledge to expand enforcement efforts against pandemic and Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud, a look at the U.S. Department of Justice's recent criminal and civil enforcement actions sheds light on its evolving priorities, say Sara Lord and Aaron Danzig at Arnall Golden.
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Ampersand Clarifies Power Project Placed-In-Service Analysis
The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Ampersand Chowchilla Biomass v. U.S. affirms a lower court's decision regarding when power generation projects were placed in service for federal income tax purposes, but also highlights that the placed-in-service analysis is not one size fits all, say David Burton and Viktoria Vozarova at Norton Rose.
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Simplifying Tax Issues For Nonresident Athletes In Canada
Tax compliance can be particularly challenging for nonresident professional athletes playing in Canada, but as NHL contract negotiations approach a close, it's worth looking at some ways the tax burden can be mitigated, say Marie-France Dompierre and Marc Pietro Allard at Davies Ward.
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Steps For Universities As DOJ Shifts Foreign Influence Policy
Notwithstanding Wednesday's U.S. Department of Justice announcement terminating the initiative targeting Chinese influence and raising the bar for criminal prosecutions, universities should ensure their compliance controls meet new disclosure standards and that they can efficiently respond to inquiries about employees' foreign connections, say attorneys at Covington.
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How Gold Coin Tax Ruling May Apply To IRA Crypto Holdings
The U.S. Tax Court’s recent decision in McNulty v. Commissioner, affirming that a self-directed individual retirement account owner received taxable distributions in taking possession of her IRA’s gold coins, may have troublesome applications for retirement accounts with cryptocurrency holdings, says Luke Bailey at Clark Hill.
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Why I'll Miss Arguing Before Justice Breyer
Carter Phillips at Sidley shares some of his fondest memories of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer both inside and out of the courtroom, and explains why he thinks the justice’s multipronged questions during U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments were everything an advocate could ask for.