Federal
-
August 08, 2024
Nixon Peabody Hires Community Development Counsel In DC
When Steven Feenstra, the newest member of Nixon Peabody LLP's the community development finance practice, visited a client's office some 25 years ago, the photos of the community housing projects the client had helped develop made a lasting impression on him, he told Law360 Pulse in an interview Thursday.
-
August 08, 2024
Cabinet Cos. Say They're Owed $1.35M In Retention Credits
The Internal Revenue Service owes a pair of Arizona-based cabinet manufacturers that operate as a single employer nearly $1.35 million in employee retention tax credits, the companies told an Arizona federal court, adding that the agency has failed to even respond to their claims.
-
August 08, 2024
Colo. Couple Settle $3.4M Hardship Refund Case
A Colorado couple hit by a series of economic and personal hardships have reached a settlement with the federal government that will grant the couple a portion of the $3.4 million refund they sought and resolve their case, the two sides told a Colorado federal court.
-
August 08, 2024
US Asks 2nd Circ. To Uphold IRS Lien For $4.2M Restitution
The Internal Revenue Service should be allowed to proceed with a lien to collect some $4.2 million in restitution from a man who pled guilty to three counts of tax fraud, the U.S. told the Second Circuit.
-
August 07, 2024
Weak Link Doomed $690M Whistleblower Claim, DC Circ. Says
A whistleblower could not get up to $690 million, or 30% of the $2.3 billion collected in an Internal Revenue Service offshore voluntary disclosure program, because the connection between his actions and the program was weak, the D.C. Circuit said Wednesday.
-
August 07, 2024
Waste Co. Not Entitled To Audit Records, IRS Tells Court
Garbage-hauling giant Waste Management Inc. is not entitled to the IRS' tax files on the company from 2017, including audit records, because some documents contain return information of third parties, the agency said Wednesday.
-
August 07, 2024
5th Circ. Grapples With 'Ridiculous' $100M Arbitration
A Fifth Circuit panel struggled to make sense out of a "ridiculous" arbitration proceeding that produced four contradictory arbitration awards in a legal malpractice dispute, one awarding $100 million, pressing both sides during oral arguments Wednesday to give answers about how the "spectacle" unfolded.
-
August 07, 2024
'Looting' Of Co. Doesn't End S Corp. Status, Tax Court Says
While a co-owner of a California S corporation may have been the victim of two other owners "looting" the company through disproportionate distributions, such actions didn't dissolve its S corporation status, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday.
-
August 07, 2024
Pension Plans' Expert Testimony Limited In $2B Tax Fraud Suit
A New York federal court decided to exclude portions of an expert's testimony on behalf of pension plans that are accused of seeking to defraud Denmark's tax agency in a $2.1 billion tax refund fraud scheme.
-
August 07, 2024
Tax Court's Economic Substance Foray May Clarify Limits
A U.S. Tax Court judge plans to address an ill-defined provision governing the relevance of the economic substance doctrine in a microcaptive insurance case, offering the courts another chance to clarify an anti-abuse tool the IRS has been deploying more often.
-
August 07, 2024
US Taxpayers Claimed $8.4B In Energy Credits In 2023
Taxpayers claimed $6.3 billion is residential clean energy credits and $2.1 billion in energy-efficient home improvement credits in 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
-
August 06, 2024
US Wants Israeli Businessman Sanctioned In $3.6M FBAR Suit
An Israeli businessman should be sanctioned for defying a Washington federal court's discovery orders by a default judgment in the U.S. government's $3.6 million case over his unreported foreign bank accounts and by another order to comply, the government said Tuesday.
-
August 06, 2024
Wind Tower Co. Asks Full Fed. Circ. To Revisit Subsidy Duties
A Federal Circuit panel wrongly concluded that a 10% depreciation rate for deducting costs related to manufacturing facilities set by Canadian law was an unfair trade subsidy that justified countervailing trade duties, a wind tower manufacturer told the court in seeking a rehearing.
-
August 06, 2024
Businessman Found To Owe Over $2.9M In FBAR Fines
A U.S. inventor and businessman who had been based in Hong Kong and started a company there must pay over $2.9 million in penalties for failing to report his overseas bank accounts for eight years, a Virginia federal judge ruled Tuesday.
-
August 06, 2024
Tax Compliance Costs US Economy $546B, Report Says
The billions of hours spent completing Internal Revenue Service forms and tax returns, along with out-of-pocket compliance costs, ultimately costs the U.S. economy over $546 billion, the Tax Foundation reported Tuesday.
-
August 06, 2024
IRS Error Doesn't Enable Kyocera's $7M Refund Suit, US Says
Electronics maker Kyocera can't seek a $7 million tax refund in federal district court because it owed taxes when it filed its original complaint, a fact that isn't changed by IRS' improper abatement of the company's liabilities before it filed an amended complaint, the government argued.
-
August 06, 2024
Ayahuasca Church Asks DC Circ. To Rethink Tax Status
An Iowa church that used a psychedelic drug in its rites asked the D.C. Circuit for an en banc rehearing after a panel determined the church was correctly denied tax-exempt status since its main purpose was using a federally illegal drug.
-
August 06, 2024
Bressler Grows In NJ With New Litigation, Tax Experts
Bressler Amery & Ross PC added longtime experts in tax law, trusts and estates, and commercial litigation in a recent round of expansion in New Jersey announced this week.
-
August 06, 2024
Treasury Floats Rules To Address Losses Under Pillar 2
The U.S. Treasury Department proposed regulations Tuesday that outline when foreign taxes under the Pillar Two international minimum tax agreement could trigger long-standing U.S. rules that aim to prevent companies from what is known as double-dipping the same economic loss.
-
August 06, 2024
NC Software Execs Can't Unravel Payroll Tax Fraud Conviction
Two former software executives found guilty of failing to pay over $600,000 in employment taxes failed to clear a steep hurdle in trying to reverse their convictions, a North Carolina federal judge said in rejecting their bid for acquittal or a new trial.
-
August 06, 2024
Ex-UBS Exec Calls $4.7M In FBAR Penalties Unconstitutional
A former executive for Swiss bank UBS' North American group told a Connecticut federal court the $4.7 million in penalties he faces for willful failure to report his foreign bank accounts are unconstitutionally excessive.
-
August 06, 2024
Partnership Asks Tax Court To Toss $13M Credit Reduction
An Idaho partnership asked the U.S. Tax Court to throw out an Internal Revenue Service adjustment that reduced the value of an energy investment tax credit by $13 million, saying it never claimed the credit in the first place.
-
August 06, 2024
Arnold & Porter Adds Abramson Cancer Center Chief Counsel
Throughout her career and while working in progressive leadership roles for the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Mir Masud-Elias, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP's newest counsel, has asked herself the same question: Is this role the best use of her time on Earth?
-
August 06, 2024
Paul Hastings Gains Tax Pro In Dallas From McDermott
Paul Hastings announced Tuesday that its meteoric growth in Texas is continuing with the addition of a partner in Dallas who strengthens its global tax practice and came aboard from McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
-
August 05, 2024
9th Circ. Rejects Calif. Couple's Informal Tax Refund Bid
A California couple who for years had a practice of overpaying their federal taxes missed a critical deadline to informally claim a nearly $700,000 tax overpayment, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Monday, rejecting their request for a refund.
Expert Analysis
-
Liability Exposure For Unpaid Payroll Taxes May Surprise You
The Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Richard W. York v. U.S. offers important lessons for business owners and others who may be responsible for a company's checkbook about how someone else's failure to submit payroll taxes can result in their personal liability, says Douglas Charnas at McGlinchey Stafford.
-
Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information
As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.
-
Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD
Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.
-
Unlocking Value In Carve-Out M&A Transactions
Some of the largest mergers and acquisitions in 2023 were carve-out transactions, and despite their unique intricacies and challenges, these transactions offer both buyers and sellers the opportunity to generate outsized returns in an otherwise vigorously competitive landscape, when carefully planned and diligently executed, say Kevin Crews and Rami Totari at Kirkland.
-
Attorneys, Law Schools Must Adapt To New Era Of Evidence
Technological advancements mean more direct evidence is being created than ever before, and attorneys as well as law schools must modify their methods to account for new challenges in how this evidence is collected and used to try cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
-
1st Tax Easement Convictions Will Likely Embolden DOJ, IRS
After recent convictions in the first criminal tax fraud trial over allegedly abusive syndicated conservation easements, the IRS and U.S. Department of Justice will likely pursue other promoters for similar alleged conspiracies — though one acquittal may help attorneys better evaluate their clients' exposure, say Bill Curtis and Lauren DeSantis-Then at Polsinelli.
-
Tips For Litigating Against Pro Se Parties In Complex Disputes
Litigating against self-represented parties in complex cases can pose unique challenges for attorneys, but for the most part, it requires the same skills that are useful in other cases — from documenting everything to understanding one’s ethical duties, says Bryan Ketroser at Alto Litigation.
-
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.