Federal

  • August 15, 2024

    Tax Pros Navigate Chaos, Rewards In Climate Law's 2nd Year

    Energy tax attorneys have been knee-deep in project finance deals for the past year since the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 triggered a flurry of clean energy investments, but the work, they say, has been fulfilling as part of broader efforts to save the environment.

  • August 15, 2024

    IRS Reopens Improper Retention Credit Disclosure Program

    Businesses that think they improperly received COVID-era employee retention credits have another chance to apply for a voluntary disclosure program that could reduce their penalty and allow them to avoid future audits, penalties and interest, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday.

  • August 15, 2024

    Ga. Man Accused Of Trying To Steal $1.9M In COVID Funds

    A Georgia man was indicted in a scheme to steal $1.9 million in pandemic relief money and accused of wire fraud, submitting fraudulent federal tax returns and stealing dozens of Social Security numbers, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

  • August 15, 2024

    IRS Corrects Regs For Digital Asset Brokers, Energy Credits

    The Internal Revenue Service issued corrections to three sets of final regulations Thursday, including those related to digital asset brokers and two clean energy tax credit provisions.

  • August 14, 2024

    Disbarred Atty Admits To Tax Evasion Over Mass Tort Fees

    A disbarred attorney pled guilty to a single count of tax evasion Wednesday in Pennsylvania federal court stemming from allegations he didn't pay taxes on more than $100 million in legal fees he earned from representing 4,300 plaintiffs in a mass tort case, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

  • August 14, 2024

    Tax Court Judge Again Deems CPA's Refund Claim Frivolous

    A U.S. Tax Court judge rejected a certified public accountant's calculation that the IRS owed him a nearly $30,000 tax refund, repeating her opinion that the CPA was making frivolous arguments in claiming he owed no taxes on his income.

  • August 14, 2024

    Medical Device Maker Pleads Guilty To $2.4M Tax Evasion

    A man who made millions of dollars on medical devices and sold one purporting to eradicate viruses by using sound waves pled guilty to evading $2.4 million in taxes in a trust scheme involving his girlfriend, according to Florida federal court documents.

  • August 14, 2024

    DC Tax Relief Can Aid Office Projects, But It's No 'Silver Bullet'

    While tax relief programs may help a handful of office conversion projects in Washington, D.C., and make financial sense, much more needs to happen to bring the city's struggling downtown back to life again, real estate experts say.

  • August 13, 2024

    Hunter Biden Says Corruption Claims Don't Belong In Tax Trial

    Hunter Biden has urged a California federal judge to bar a jury weighing his tax charges from hearing any allegations of corruption regarding foreign sources of income for fear it would "insinuate extraneous, politically charged matters" into the trial.

  • August 13, 2024

    Gov't Seeks To Use Liens To Nab Decades-Old $2.8M Tax Debt

    A businessman and his trust face the prospect of losing a New York property as the Internal Revenue Service asked a federal court to set aside conveyances to him of property with IRS tax liens and collect on a $2.8 million tax debt.

  • August 13, 2024

    Walz Backed Tax Hikes Funding Plans For Children, Families

    As Minnesota's governor, Democrat Tim Walz, now the presumed vice presidential nominee of his party, separated himself from most other governors by signing into law numerous tax increases funding progressive priorities such as a paid family leave plan and the nation's largest child tax credit.

  • August 13, 2024

    Treasury's Loss Rules Take Broad Approach To Min. Tax Deal

    The U.S. Treasury Department recently dashed the hopes of multinational corporations seeking regulations that would have carved out an international minimum tax agreement from interacting with long-standing domestic rules aimed at preventing companies from using the same economic loss twice.

  • August 13, 2024

    Partnerships' Easement Fight Ends As Gov't Drops IRS Notice

    An Alabama federal judge dismissed a complaint by dozens of partnerships claiming they shouldn't have to comply with an IRS notice regarding conservation easement transactions, following an Eleventh Circuit ruling upholding the notice as invalid and the government's agreement not to enforce it.

  • August 13, 2024

    IRS Delays Tax Deadlines In Vermont After Hurricane Debby

    Taxpayers in Vermont will be given until Feb. 3 to file individual and business tax returns and make payments after the state was hit by Hurricane Debby, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.

  • August 13, 2024

    Tax Court Nixes Loss Deduction, But Owners Owe No Penalty

    The Internal Revenue Service was right to determine a business created to provide guidance to real estate owners and investors couldn't claim loss deductions because its business had not actually started, the Tax Court said Tuesday, but the owners are not liable for an accuracy-related penalty.

  • August 13, 2024

    IRS Wrongly Denied Tomato Cos. Deductions, 9th Circ. Told

    Two companies that supply 40% of the United States' tomato paste and diced tomatoes told the Ninth Circuit that the U.S. Tax Court erred in keeping the companies from deducting the costs of restoring their production facilities before the actual restoration occurs.

  • August 13, 2024

    Firm Asks Court To Reconsider $1.5M Freeze In Tax Dispute

    A Baltimore law firm that sued the IRS for freezing $1.5 million in its operating account to satisfy a client's tax debts told a Maryland federal court it was "dead wrong" in denying the firm's request to release the money without going to trial.

  • August 13, 2024

    Tax Court Design Violates US Law, Widow Tells 11th Circ.

    The widow of a grocery store butcher fighting a tax liability upheld by the U.S. Tax Court has told the Eleventh Circuit that the decision should be sent back for reconsideration, arguing that a provision restricting the president's power to remove Tax Court judges is unconstitutional.

  • August 13, 2024

    IRS Announces Sept. Meeting On Advisory Council Report

    The Internal Revenue Service's Advisory Council will hold a public meeting on Sept. 5 to discuss a future report from the council, the agency announced Tuesday.

  • August 12, 2024

    Accused Accounting Prof Is No Tax Expert, NJ Jury Told

    New Jersey federal jurors were urged Monday to keep one word at the front of their minds as they listen to the government present its case against an accounting professor accused of failing to report $3.3 million in income from a pharmacy he co-owned with his wife: willful.

  • August 12, 2024

    Tax Court Tosses Deficiency Challenge Over Validity

    The U.S. Tax Court cannot rule on a man's challenge to an Internal Revenue Service deficiency notice because the agency failed to show it correctly mailed the notice, rendering it invalid, and the case must be dismissed, the court said Monday. 

  • August 12, 2024

    UN Eyes Two Early Changes For Tax Pact In Latest Draft

    Diplomats would draft two legally binding protocols under the United Nations framework convention on international tax cooperation while creating the convention itself under the latest draft guidance for negotiators after they select from a shortlist of possible topics, including the digital economy and wealth taxation.

  • August 12, 2024

    IRS Lacks Broad Plan To Replace Old IT Systems, TIGTA Says

    The Internal Revenue Service lacks an agency-wide program to identify and then update, replace or retire legacy information technology systems, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported Monday.

  • August 12, 2024

    Past Tax Ideas Offer Insight Into A Harris-Walz Presidency

    An analysis of tax proposals previously put forth by Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats' presumptive nominees for president and vice president, indicates they could pursue a tax agenda geared toward providing tax relief to middle- and lower-income Americans.

  • August 12, 2024

    FedEx Misreads Chevron Ruling In $85M Tax Dispute, US Says

    FedEx wrongly believes the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the Chevron doctrine precludes the U.S. Treasury Department from promulgating regulations to stop tax cheats and prevent FedEx from claiming $84.6 million in tax credits, the U.S. government told a Tennessee federal court.

Expert Analysis

  • What Large Language Models Mean For Document Review

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    Courts often subject parties using technology assisted review to greater scrutiny than parties conducting linear, manual document review, so parties using large language models for document review should expect even more attention, along with a corresponding need for quality control and validation, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Participating In Living History Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My role as a baron in a living history group, and my work as volunteer corporate counsel for a book series fan association, has provided me several opportunities to practice in unexpected areas of law — opening doors to experiences that have nurtured invaluable personal and professional skills, says Matthew Parker at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

  • Private Equity Owners Can Remedy Law Firms' Agency Issues

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    Nonlawyer, private-equity ownership of law firms can benefit shareholders and others vulnerable to governance issues such as disparate interests, and can in turn help resolve agency problems, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • Kentucky Tax Talk: Taking Up The Dormant Commerce Clause

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    Attorneys at Frost Brown examine whether the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to review Foresight Coal Sales v. Kent Chandler to consider whether a Kentucky utility rate law discriminates against interstate commerce, and how the decision may affect dormant commerce clause jurisprudence.

  • Prevailing Wage Rules Complicate Inflation Act Tax Incentives

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    Nicole Elliott and Timothy Taylor at Holland & Knight discuss the intersection between tax and labor newly created by the Inflation Reduction Act, and focus on aspects of recent U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of the Treasury rules that may catch tax-incentive seekers off guard.

  • Payroll Tax Evasion Notice Suggests FinCEN's New Focus

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    The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s recent notice advising U.S. financial institutions to report payroll tax evasion and workers' compensation schemes in the construction industry suggests a growing interest in tax enforcement and IRS collaboration, as well as increased scrutiny in the construction sector, say Andrew Weiner and Jay Nanavati at Kostelanetz.

  • How Taxpayers Can Prep As Justices Weigh Repatriation Tax

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    The U.S. Supreme Court might strike down the 2017 federal tax overhaul's corporate repatriation tax in Moore v. U.S., so taxpayers should file protective tax refund claims before the case is decided and repatriate previously taxed earnings that could become entangled in dubious potential Section 965 refunds, say Jenny Austin and Gary Wilcox at Mayer Brown.

  • IRS Foreign Tax Credit Pause Is Welcome Course Correction

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    A recent IRS notice temporarily suspending application of 2022 foreign tax credit regulations provides wanted relief for the many U.S. multinational companies and other taxpayers that otherwise face the risk of significant double taxation in their international operations, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • If Justices End Chevron Deference, Auer Could Be Next Target

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    If the U.S. Supreme Court decides next term to overrule its Chevron v. NRDC decision, it may open the door for a similar review of the Auer deference — the principle that a government agency can interpret, through application, ambiguous agency regulations, says Sohan Dasgupta at Taft Stettinius.

  • Tax Court Ruling Provides Helpful Profits Interest Guidance

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    A recent U.S. Tax Court decision holding that a partnership may exclude interests in a company that it indirectly received sheds light on related IRS guidance, including the proper valuation method for such interests, though the court's application of the method to the facts of this case appears flawed, say attorneys at Kramer Levin.

  • Mallory Ruling Doesn't Undermine NC Sales Tax Holding

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    Contrary to the conclusion reached in a recent Law360 guest article, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Mallory ruling shouldn't be read as implicitly repudiating the North Carolina Supreme Court’s sales tax ruling in Quad Graphics v. North Carolina Department of Revenue — the U.S. Supreme Court could have rejected Quad by directly overturning it, says Jonathan Entin at Case Western Reserve.

  • IRS Criminal Probe Spells Uncertainty For Malta Pension Plans

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    The IRS’ recent scrutiny of Malta pension plan arrangements — and its unusual issuance of criminal administrative summonses — confirms that it views many of these plans as illegal tax evasion schemes, and the road ahead will not be smooth and steady for anyone involved, say attorneys at Kostelanetz.

  • IRS Announcement Will Aid Cos. In Buyback Tax Planning

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    Recent IRS transitional guidance regarding current requirements for reporting and payment of the stock repurchase excise tax will help corporate taxpayers make decisions about records retention and establishing reserves for future tax payments, say Xenia Garofalo and Kyle Colonna at Eversheds Sutherland.

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