Federal
-
May 04, 2024
IRS Seeks More Info On Purpose Test In Buyback Tax Regs
The IRS is seeking more information on fine-tuning a test in proposed rules on the stock buyback tax meant to assess whether the principal purpose of a U.S. subsidiary's funding purchase of its foreign parent's stock is to avoid the tax, an agency attorney said Saturday.
-
May 03, 2024
Gannett Can't Dodge Tax Firm's Defamation Case
Gannett Co. can't escape a defamation case accusing it of writing misleading articles saying Ryan LLC, a tax services and technology firm, engaged in shady business practices, a Texas appeals court ruled, finding the media giant isn't shielded from the claims by the Lone Star State's anti-SLAPP law.
-
May 03, 2024
US Resisting More Scoping On Amount B, Economist Says
In negotiations over the streamlined transfer pricing approach for baseline marketing and distribution functions known as Amount B, the U.S. has resisted calls for additional scoping criteria that would exclude more companies from the safe harbor, a former U.S. Treasury economist said Friday.
-
May 03, 2024
Sidley Liable For Ex-Partner's Tax Sheltering, Ga. Judge Told
Counsel for a family of business magnates who say they were duped into an illegal tax shelter scheme over 25 years ago by Sidley Austin urged a Georgia federal judge Friday to let their suit against the firm continue, arguing its defense that the suit is time-barred should be done away with.
-
May 03, 2024
Dems, GOP Favor Extending Pass-Through Break, Staff Says
Democrats and Republicans are both interested in extending the 2017 tax law's pass-through deduction, which expires at the end of 2025, though Democrats would like to limit its availability to upper-income earners, a pair of congressional staffers said Friday.
-
May 03, 2024
No Climate Law Corrections Bill Expected, Senate Staffer Says
Congress is unlikely to pass a so-called technical corrections bill that would change noncontroversial and revenue-neutral tax provisions in the 2022 climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act, a Senate Finance Committee Democratic staffer said Friday.
-
May 03, 2024
Feds Can Introduce Prior Guilty Plea In Tax Fraud Case
Federal prosecutors can introduce a man's prior admissions of tax evasion in a trial over separate tax crime charges because it could show his willingness and knowledge to commit the crime, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled.
-
May 03, 2024
Foreign Trust Reporting Rules Coming Soon, IRS Official Says
The Internal Revenue Service is about to issue proposed regulations that will provide guidance on the reporting obligations for individuals who have transactions with foreign trusts, an agency official said Friday.
-
May 03, 2024
IRS Details Penalty-Free Retirement Withdrawals For Disasters
The Internal Revenue Service detailed procedures Friday for taking penalty-free withdrawals of up to $22,000 from Internal Revenue Code Section 401(k) retirement accounts and other retirement plans under the permanent disaster tax relief granted in the Secure 2.0 Act.
-
May 03, 2024
HMRC Director Rejoins KPMG To Boost Tax Dispute Offering
A former deputy director at HM Revenue & Customs has returned to KPMG as director of KPMG Law's tax disputes teams, the firm has announced.
-
May 03, 2024
IRS Expects Updates To Hydrogen Credit Emissions Model
The Internal Revenue Service expects the U.S. Department of Energy to update a model used to determine eligibility for the new clean hydrogen production tax credit under recently proposed rules, an IRS attorney said Friday.
-
May 03, 2024
IRS Program In Miss. Delta Struggling, TIGTA Says
Attempts by the Internal Revenue Service to expand operations to economically distressed areas in the Mississippi Delta have fallen well short of a goal of hiring 160 employees by the end of fiscal 2024, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report.
-
May 03, 2024
Medical Testing Co. Not In Health Field For Taxes, IRS Says
A company that fills medical testing orders for its customers is nonetheless not a business involved in performing services in the health field for certain tax purposes, the Internal Revenue Service said in a private letter ruling released Friday.
-
May 03, 2024
IRS May Again Extend Corp. AMT Penalty Relief, Official Says
The Internal Revenue Service could again extend the penalty waiver for companies that fail to make estimated quarterly payments of the corporate alternative minimum tax, an agency official said Friday.
-
May 03, 2024
US Trade Position Seen Contradicting Stance In Pillar 1 Talks
The U.S. trade representative's withdrawal of support for digital trade proposals has caused tax policy observers to worry that the U.S. position on trade is undermining that of U.S. Treasury Department officials negotiating a taxing rights overhaul at the OECD known as Pillar One.
-
May 03, 2024
Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin
The Internal Revenue Service issued its weekly bulletin Friday, which included updated rates for foreign insurance company equations and an extension on excise tax relief for minimum plan distributions.
-
May 03, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Skadden, Wachtell, Davis Polk
In this week's Taxation With Representation, L'Occitane International said its executive director and chair is leading an offer to buy the company's shares he doesn't already own, UMB Financial agreed to purchase Heartland Financial USA, Medline said it agreed to acquire Ecolab's global surgical solutions business and The Mosaic Co. said it agreed to sell its stake in a phosphate production joint venture.
-
May 03, 2024
IRS Can Assess Foreign Info Disclosure Penalty, DC Circ. Says
The D.C. Circuit on Friday overturned a major U.S. Tax Court ruling that had struck down the Internal Revenue Service's authority to assess and administratively collect penalties from taxpayers for failing to file an information return on their interests in a foreign corporation.
-
May 03, 2024
Final EV Tax Credit Regs Add New Battery Tracing Test
The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled final regulations Friday for the up to $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit that include a more detailed process for automakers to trace the battery supply chain to qualify for the credit's domestic content requirements.
-
May 02, 2024
Hahn Air To Pay Feds $26.8M To End FCA Travel Fees Suit
Hahn Air Lines agreed to pay $26.8 million to resolve a whistleblower's allegations that the German airline-ticketing company violated the False Claims Act by intentionally failing to remit to the U.S. government certain travel fees the company collected from U.S. commercial airline passengers.
-
May 02, 2024
Claimed Panama Papers Leaker Fights To Hide ID In €5M Suit
A person claiming to be the Panama Papers leaker told a federal court they would fear for their life if the court made them disclose their identity in a €5 million ($6.3 million) suit against Germany, protesting a magistrate judge's suggestion that the suit be tossed because the person wouldn't identify themselves.
-
May 02, 2024
Texas Tax Preparers Cop To $3.7M Tax Fraud Scheme
The owner of a Texas tax preparation company and her two sisters who worked as employees all pled guilty Thursday to preparing nearly $3.7 million worth of false returns riddled with fraudulent credits, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
-
May 02, 2024
IRS To Boost Audit Rates By 50% On Wealthy, Werfel Says
The Internal Revenue Service plans to nearly triple audit rates on corporations with assets over $250 million and increase audit rates by more than 50% on wealthy taxpayers with more than $10 million in total positive income by 2026, Commissioner Daniel Werfel said Thursday.
-
May 02, 2024
Latest Stock Buyback Tax Rules May Still Have Wide Reach
The U.S. Treasury Department recently floated regulations that narrow an earlier proposal aimed at preventing foreign-parented corporations from circumventing a new excise tax on stock buybacks, but the regulations still characterize avoidance in ways that could include routine intercompany transactions.
-
May 02, 2024
Wyden Pushes Intuit To Help Users Get Refunds After Error
The Senate's top tax writer told Intuit's CEO that the company needs to help taxpayers in Oregon, the senator's home state, receive the full refunds they're entitled to after a reported error in its TurboTax product caused some Oregonians to overpay their state taxes.
Expert Analysis
-
Anticipating Intensified Partnership Enforcement From IRS
The Internal Revenue Service's decadeslong difficulties with partnership audits led to the recent announcement of a clear, well-funded, focused initiative, and businesses operating in the partnership form will feel the impact, with definite changes ahead, says Sharon Katz-Pearlman at Greenberg Traurig.
-
Pro Bono Work Is Powerful Self-Help For Attorneys
Oct. 22-28 is Pro Bono Week, serving as a useful reminder that offering free legal help to the public can help attorneys expand their legal toolbox, forge community relationships and create human connections, despite the challenges of this kind of work, says Orlando Lopez at Culhane Meadows.
-
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Espinosa On 'Lincoln Lawyer'
The murder trials in Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” illustrate the stark contrast between the ethical high ground that fosters and maintains the criminal justice system's integrity, and the ethical abyss that can undermine it, with an important reminder for all legal practitioners, say Judge Adam Espinosa and Andrew Howard at the Colorado 2nd Judicial District Court.
-
Newman Suspension Shows Need For Judicial Reform
The recent suspension of U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman following her alleged refusal to participate in a disability inquiry reveals the need for judicial misconduct reforms to ensure that judges step down when they can no longer serve effectively, says Aliza Shatzman at The Legal Accountability Project.
-
How And Why Your Firm Should Implement Fixed-Fee Billing
Amid rising burnout in the legal industry and client efforts to curtail spending, pivoting to a fixed-fee billing model may improve client-attorney relationships and offer lawyers financial, logistical and stress relief — while still maintaining profit margins, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
-
How Law Firms Can Use Account-Based Marketing Strategies
Amid several evolving legal industry trends, account-based marketing can help law firms uncover additional revenue-generating opportunities with existing clients, with key considerations ranging from data analytics to relationship building, say Jennifer Ramsey at stage LLC and consultant Gina Sponzilli.
-
While Risks Exist, AI Could Transform IRS Enforcement
The Internal Revenue Service's recently announced use of artificial intelligence could revolutionize the agency's enforcement efforts, and transparency about its use and a forum for challenging AI findings could help mitigate fears that the technology will increase bias, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.
-
Strategic Succession Planning At Law Firms Is Crucial
Senior partners' reluctance to retire, the rise of the nonequity partner tier and generational differences in expectations are all contributing to an increasing number of departures from BigLaw, making it imperative for firms to encourage retirement among senior ranks and provide clearer leadership pathways to junior attorneys, says Laura Leopard at Leopard Solutions.
-
Maximizing Law Firm Profitability In Uncertain Times
As threats of an economic downturn loom, firms can boost profits by embracing the power of bottom-line management and creating an ecosystem where strategic financial oversight and robust timekeeping practices meet evolved client relations, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.
-
Enforcement Of International Tax Reporting Is Heating Up
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s February decision in Bittner v. U.S. changed how penalties for failure to report offshore accounts are calculated, recent developments suggest the government is preparing to step up enforcement and vigorously pursue the collection of resulting penalties, say Daniel Silva and Agustin Ceballos at Buchalter.
-
How Gov't Agencies Will Fare In The Event Of A Shutdown
With a federal shutdown potentially set to begin at the end of this month, it may be useful to consider the approximate timelines that agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and IRS have announced for curtailing operations, and potential strategies for mitigating challenges that may arise while agency functions are limited, say attorneys at Cleary.
-
IRS Notice Clarifies R&E Amortization, But Questions Remain
The IRS and Treasury Department’s recent notice clarifying the treatment of specified research and experimental expenditures under Section 174 provides taxpayers and practitioners with substantive guidance, but it misses the mark in delineating which expenditures are amortizable, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
-
Preparing Your Legal Department For Pillar 2 Compliance
Multinational entities should familiarize themselves with Pillar Two of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s BEPs 2.0 project and prepare their internal legal tracking systems for related reporting requirements that may go into effect as early as January, says Daniel Robyn at Ernst & Young.