Federal
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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.
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February 23, 2024
FTC Rips H&R Block's 'Deceptive' Marketing, 'Coercive' Ploys
The Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against H&R Block claiming the tax preparation company deceptively marketed some products as "free" and "coerced" people to pay for pricier products, the government agency announced Friday.
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February 23, 2024
'Empire' Star Owes Income Tax After Threatening DOJ Atty
"Empire" actor Terrence Howard owes more than $900,000 in federal income taxes under a default judgment by a Pennsylvania federal judge that follows a monthslong search by the government to notify the actor of the suit, during which he threatened a government attorney.
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February 23, 2024
UN Tax Pact May Need OECD Nations' Support, Diplomats Say
The United Nations' global tax convention will likely require adoption by many advanced economies to address corporate tax abuse effectively, diplomats said, after countries resolved to pursue consensus over the long term but retain majority rule while drafting its terms of reference.
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February 23, 2024
Lead Pipe Replacement Not Taxable, IRS Says
The government-triggered replacement of lead service lines on residential property is not considered taxable income, the Internal Revenue Service said Friday.
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February 23, 2024
With Interest, Trump Now Owes $454M For NY Valuation Fraud
Donald Trump owes New York state nearly a half billion dollars after a county clerk on Friday tacked on $99 million in interest linked to a $355 million judgment in the state attorney general's civil fraud case against the former president last week.
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February 23, 2024
IRS To Open Grant Application Period For Low-Income Clinics
The Internal Revenue Service will accept applications for low income taxpayer clinic grants starting Monday, the agency announced Friday.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.