Federal

Expert Analysis

• Inside The IRS' Final First-Year Depreciation Tax Regulations

  

  Daniel Kiely and Minju Kim at Mayer Brown discuss key issues and clarifications associated with the Internal Revenue Service's recently finalized regulations allowing companies to deduct depreciable assets the year the business puts them in place.

• CFTC Climate Change Report Highlights Costs Of Inaction

  

  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent report on climate change and financial markets makes it clear that while government regulation of carbon dioxide pollution may have negative consequences, letting greenhouse gas emissions go unaddressed could harm investors, asset managers and financial institutions, says Nicholas Fox at Goldberg Segalla.

• Dems' Int'l Tax Policy Comes With Unintended Consequences

  

  Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris’ "Made in America" tax policy overstates the importance of revenue raising, which may encourage foreign ownership of global activity and disadvantage U.S.-based companies, says George Callas at Steptoe & Johnson.

• How Cos. Can Respond To Growing Crypto Tax Enforcement

  

  As the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service remain laser-focused on abusive cryptocurrency schemes, companies operating in this high-risk industry should review their compliance measures in areas such as data analysis, employee oversight and industry benchmarking, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

• Cos. Should Have To Notify Workers Of Whistleblower Rights

  

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, U.S. Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service should require employment confidentiality and separation agreements to make clear workers may talk to the agencies and retain any whistleblower award without retaliation or approval, says Ezra Bronstein at Mehri & Skalet.

• What A Biden Win Could Mean For Employer Health Insurance

  

  Eric Schillinger and Anne Hall at Hall Benefits discuss how a Biden administration's potential legislative and regulatory changes to employer-sponsored health insurance — such as expansion of the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination rules and withdrawal of the Trump administration's association health plan regulations — would impact employers.

• Trump's Tax Tactics May Be Criminal

  

  Apologists who defend President Donald Trump as having shrewdly exploited legal loopholes by deducting dubious consulting fees from his taxes are ignoring major badges of fraud that would have led the Internal Revenue Service to investigate any other taxpayer, says Daren Firestone at Levy Firestone.

• A Tax Case Key To Justice Ginsburg's Equal Protection Fight

  

  In the 1970 case Moritz v. Commissioner, future Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's legal reasoning that the Internal Revenue Code discriminated against a male taxpayer on the basis of sex provided the foundation for a lineage of constitutional jurisprudence, says Olivia Renensland at Kostelanetz & Fink.

• CARES Act Compliance Reminders For 401(k) Plans

  

  Employers that used the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to offer 401(k) participants greater access to their savings should revisit compliance obligations for distribution rights, loan limit increases and repayment suspensions as the year-end approaches, says Timothy Collins at Duane Morris.

• Managing New IRS Global High-Wealth Audits

  

  Global high-wealth individuals on the receiving end of an audit letter under the Internal Revenue Service Large Business and International Division's new program should prepare for a thorough examination process that includes their entire network of persons and affiliated entities, say attorneys at MoFo.

• COVID-19 Crisis May Make M&A Earnouts More Attractive

  

  Earnouts are poised for a resurgence in the pandemic-churned M&A market, making it important to weigh the structure’s advantages as a way to close valuation gaps between buyers and sellers, as well as consider potential federal income tax disadvantages, say Efren Acosta and Ron Scharnberg at Baker Botts.

• IRS Notice Helps Unpack Part-Time Worker 401(k) Eligibility

  

  As sponsors struggle to evaluate whether and how to include employer contributions when 401(k) plan eligibility is extended to long-term, part-time workers on Jan. 1, newly released IRS guidance may clarify some of the administrative burdens, say Anne Hall and Katharine Finley at Hall Benefits.

• Class Arbitration May Meet Its Demise At High Court This Term

  

  While the Second Circuit’s 2019 opinion in Jock v. Sterling Jewelers and the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Shivkov v. Artex exemplify how two interrelated inquiries have rescued class arbitration, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely address the issues this term and extinguish the practice, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.