Federal
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
March 19, 2024
Exxon Wants Closed Court In $1.8B Tax Trial
Exxon Mobil plans to seek courtroom closures for parts of an upcoming trial in its $1.8 billion suit challenging denied tax deductions for payments it made to Qatar, telling a Texas federal court that certain testimony, if made public, would damage its relationship with the foreign partner.
-
March 18, 2024
Ariz. Rebates Trigger Federal Tax, IRS Tells Court
Arizona's one-time 2023 payments to taxpayers are subject to federal taxation because they do not qualify for exclusions for general welfare or disaster relief payments, the Internal Revenue Service told a federal court.
-
March 18, 2024
Justices Won't Review Dead Film Exec's IRS Summons
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from the daughter of a dead film executive to consider invalidating an IRS summons for her father's financial records, letting stand a Ninth Circuit decision that found the agency sought the records in good faith.
-
March 18, 2024
Werfel Calls Online Biz Account Authentication A Challenge
Establishing an effective user authentication method for companies using online business tax accounts is a challenge for the Internal Revenue Service and the agency wants suggestions on how to do it, commissioner Daniel Werfel said Monday.
-
March 18, 2024
Treasury Mulling Whether To Keep Foreign Tax Credit Regime
The U.S. Treasury Department is considering whether the best way to provide administrable foreign tax credit rules and address related policy concerns is to retain the framework from paused final regulations or develop a new one, a Treasury official said Monday.
-
March 18, 2024
Tennis Job No Reason To Slice 'Varsity Blues' Term, Feds Say
A tennis instructor job in New York is no reason to grant an early end to the home confinement portion of a sentence given to a former Georgetown University coach for his role in the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal, prosecutors told a Massachusetts federal judge Monday.
-
March 18, 2024
Wyden, Whitehouse Scrutinize DOJ's Caterpillar Investigation
Two top Democratic senators asked the U.S. Justice Department about its handling of a criminal inquiry into Caterpillar for potential financial crimes and corporate tax fraud after receiving evidence corroborating a report that former DOJ officials may have suppressed the investigation, according to a letter released Monday.
-
March 18, 2024
Feds Want 12 Years For Ex-Broker In Fraud, Tax Case
A former mortgage broker whose decadelong fraud scheme tricked more than a dozen people out of $8 million and caused more than $3 million in tax losses should spend 12 and a half years in prison, the government told a Rhode Island federal court.
-
March 18, 2024
IRS Schedules Hearing On Hydrogen Production Taxes
The Internal Revenue Service plans to hold a three-day public hearing this month on proposed rules affecting the tax treatment of the production of clean hydrogen, the agency announced Monday.
-
March 15, 2024
Ohio Ambulance Co. Says HR Firm Botched Tax Returns
An Ohio ambulance company accused its human resources management firm of failing to accurately prepare and submit amended tax returns that would have allowed the company to claim pandemic-era tax credits, according to a complaint filed in an Ohio federal court.
-
March 15, 2024
Justices Told Estate Incorrectly Taxed On Insurance Payout
The federal government's argument that the $3.5 million in life insurance proceeds a company used to redeem a deceased owner's shares increased both the company's value and its dead owner's estate tax liability ignores "economic reality," the estate told the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
-
March 15, 2024
IRS Asked To Change Effective Date In Part-Time Worker Rule
The effective date for proposed IRS rules on participation of long-term, part-time employees in retirement plans would violate administrative law if not changed in final regulations, an attorney speaking for a benefits organization told the agency and the U.S. Treasury Department at a hearing Friday.
-
March 15, 2024
Applicable Federal Interest Rates To Rise In April
Applicable federal rates for income tax purposes will rise in April, the Internal Revenue Service said Friday.
-
March 15, 2024
The Tax Angle: House GOP Plots TCJA Renewal Strategy
House Republicans left Washington this week for their annual two-day legislative issues conference, hoping to expand their control of the chamber in the upcoming November elections and planning their strategy for renewal of their historic 2017 tax overhaul law.
-
March 15, 2024
Tax Foundation Says UN Should Avoid Duplicating Tax Efforts
The United Nations should only create global tax rules in areas where it can effectively reduce uncertainty and should avoid duplicating negotiations underway elsewhere, the Tax Foundation said Friday in a response to the organization.
-
March 15, 2024
Feds Want 6 Years For 'Poster Boy' Of Mass. Police Corruption
Boston federal prosecutors have recommended nearly 6 years in prison for a former Massachusetts trooper who they say is the living embodiment of police misconduct in light of his trial convictions for stealing overtime pay, lying on his taxes and cheating to get student financial aid for his son.
-
March 15, 2024
Attys, Broker Fight For Advice-Of-Counsel Defense In Tax Trial
Two St. Louis attorneys and a North Carolina insurance agent staring down criminal tax charges in North Carolina federal court said the government can't prevent them from relying on advice-of-counsel defenses at their upcoming trial, arguing they've handed over all the information prosecutors need to prepare.
-
March 15, 2024
$3B In Employment Tax Credits Claimed In Scheme, Feds Say
Three New Jersey men who said they were leaders of religious and charitable organizations fraudulently claimed nearly $3 billion in employment tax credits from a federal pandemic loan program, according to a criminal complaint filed in New Jersey federal court.
-
March 15, 2024
Direct Hit On Tax Regs Unlikely If Justices Ditch Chevron
A decision from the U.S. Supreme Court later this year on two cases challenging the so-called Chevron doctrine, which gives federal agencies wide latitude to interpret ambiguous laws, isn't likely to immediately affect tax regulations.
Expert Analysis
-
How To Address Research Expenditures Amid Uncertainty
Taxpayers need to prepare for the significant technical and compliance challenges of following Internal Revenue Code Section 174's new rules for experimentation expenditure capitalization and amortization, notwithstanding the rules' unresolved legislative future, say tax advisers at Grant Thornton.
-
LeClairRyan Bankruptcy Highlights Pass-Through Tax Issue
A Virginia bankruptcy court's recent ruling in the case of defunct law firm LeClairRyan shows there may be serious tax consequences for pass-through entity partners who give up their ownership interest without following operating agreement exit provisions and updating bankruptcy court filings, say Edward Schnitzer and Hannah Travaglini at Montgomery McCracken.
-
Tax, Social Services And The Need For An IRS Overhaul
Revamping the Internal Revenue Service should start with visibly improving taxpayer experiences to help pave the way for other fundamental changes needed to address the recent drop in audit numbers, personnel losses, burdens of its increasing expansion into social services and other problems, says Rice University fellow Joyce Beebe.
-
Key Legal And Regulatory Trends In Oil And Gas Transactions
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Attorneys involved in oil and gas transactions must be aware of important legal and regulatory trends that have emerged recently, including issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing, climate change, pipeline tariffs and a resurgence of regulation under the Biden administration, say Justin Hoffman and Thomas Blackwell at Baker Botts.
-
Employer Considerations For Leave Donation Programs
As the battle for talent continues and workers return to the office, companies may consider allowing employees to donate accrued leave time to a shared bank, but employers should first review these programs' complex design issues to comply with state laws and avoid tax consequences, says Rebecca Hudson at Holland & Hart.
-
Crypto Cos. Should Prep For More IRS John Doe Summonses
In anticipation of new reporting requirements that will go into effect in 2024, cryptocurrency exchanges and custodians should inform themselves on the John Doe summons, a unique mechanism that allows the IRS to obtain expansive information about cryptocurrency transactions, say Shivani Poddar and Andrew Heighington at Herrick Feinstein.
-
Employer Travel Benefits Options For Abortion Care Post-Roe
Given the likelihood that Roe v. Wade will be overturned, and with the proliferation of state legislation restricting abortion access, employers may want to consider the legal implications of several options to expand travel reimbursement benefits for employees who seek abortion services, say Danita Merlau and Ben Conley at Seyfarth.
-
Global Tax Chiefs Should Look To US Whistleblower Programs
As the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement develops its international whistleblower program to address tax evasion and money laundering schemes in new areas like cryptocurrency, it should take lessons from highly successful U.S. programs on which features to include and pitfalls to avoid, say Neil Getnick and Nico Gurian at Getnick & Getnick.
-
Crypto Investors May Face Increasing State FCA Tax Liability
Cryptocurrency investors who fail to report the state tax consequences of transactions are poised to encounter increased civil or criminal legal exposure as a growing number of states bring tax fraud under the purview of their whistleblower statutes, say attorneys at Brownstein Hyatt.
-
Justices' Boechler Ruling May Spell Tax Exceptionalism's End
By basing its decision on cases outside the tax arena, the U.S. Supreme Court treated Boechler v. Commissioner as an administrative law case rather than a tax case and stripped away the traditional lines of tax exceptionalism, says James Creech at Baker Tilly.
-
MORE Act's Possible Impact On State-Licensed Cannabis Cos.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, would dramatically alter the federal legal landscape for state-licensed cannabis businesses in both positive and negative ways — from opening new marketing avenues to compounding tax burdens, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Omar Figueroa.
-
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.
-
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.