Federal
-
January 16, 2025
IRS Corrects Simplified Foreign Currency Rules
The Internal Revenue Service issued corrections Thursday to finalized regulations that aim to simplify aspects of how corporations determine taxable income or loss with respect to certain affiliates that conduct business in a foreign currency.
-
January 16, 2025
Treasury Updates Bonus Energy Tax Credit Safe Harbors
The U.S. Treasury Department provided updates Thursday to safe harbors that clean energy project developers can use to qualify for bonus tax credits for domestically sourcing steel and aluminum parts in response to new trade restrictions on solar products from China by President Joe Biden's administration.
-
January 15, 2025
Tax Court Rejects Brothers' Claims Of Gifted Jewelry
The U.S. Tax Court on Wednesday upheld $2.5 million in taxes, plus fraud penalties, against brothers who claimed an unreported bank account held nontaxable proceeds from the sale of their mother's gift of 1,600 pieces of jewelry from Israel and Iran.
-
January 15, 2025
Dems, GOP Willing To Work On Certain Tax Issues, Aides Say
Democrats are willing to work with Republicans on bipartisan issues, such as providing certain treaty-like benefits to Taiwanese residents, retirement issues, and tax administration issues, Democratic and GOP aides for the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees said Wednesday.
-
January 15, 2025
More IRS Partnership 'Soft Letters' Coming, Official Says
The Internal Revenue Service will keep using an educational compliance tool called soft letters to prod taxpayers to comply with a centralized partnership audit regime that has recently turned its focus to larger and more complicated entities, an agency official said Wednesday.
-
January 15, 2025
Former IRS Litigator Joins Jones Day In Boston
Jones Day announced it added an experienced IRS litigator to its Boston office who will work as of counsel in the firm's tax practice.
-
January 15, 2025
Legislators Say Transparency Act Defies First Amendment
The Corporate Transparency Act is an unnecessary intrusion into the First Amendment rights of Americans, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and 13 House members told the Supreme Court in seeking to maintain an injunction issued in December.
-
January 15, 2025
IRS Establishes Clean Vehicle Credit Valuation Safe Harbors
The Internal Revenue Service provided two safe harbors Wednesday for calculating the value of the commercial clean vehicle tax credit using either modeled incremental costs or retail-price equivalents.
-
January 15, 2025
House Clears US-Taiwan Double Tax Relief Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation Wednesday that would provide Taiwanese businesses in the United States with tax-treaty-like benefits and authorize the White House to negotiate a tax agreement with Taiwan.
-
January 15, 2025
9th Circ. Won't Review Nixed Deductions For Disbarred Atty
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday rejected a disbarred California attorney's requests to review its December decision to uphold a U.S. Tax Court ruling denying his bid to take business deductions for the cost of challenging his disbarment and a court's declaration that he is a "vexatious litigant."
-
January 15, 2025
IRS Pilots Aim To Broaden Fast-Track Settlement Program
The Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday that it would test changes to its settlement procedures through pilot programs that aim to allow more businesses and self-employed people to keep their disputes with the agency out of court.
-
January 15, 2025
IRS Lists Facility Types Eligible For Clean Energy Credits
The Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday released the first annual table showing the types of facilities that have been deemed to not produce greenhouse gas emissions and are therefore eligible for the clean energy production and investment tax credits.
-
January 15, 2025
IRS Mulling Widened Early Application Of Offshore Profit Regs
The Internal Revenue Service is considering expanding the early application option for proposed regulations designed to help U.S. multinational corporations properly account for previously taxed earnings and profits, an agency official said Wednesday.
-
January 15, 2025
Booz Allen Must Pay For Harm Of Tax Info Leaks, Court Told
A proposed class action in Maryland federal court blames IRS contractor Booz Allen Hamilton over the thousands of tax returns that were stolen by an employee who took financial information about President-elect Donald Trump and others while on the job and leaked it to the media.
-
January 15, 2025
Applicable Federal Rates To Continue Rising In Feb.
Applicable federal rates for income tax purposes will increase across the board for the third straight month in February, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
-
January 15, 2025
Fried Frank Guides $177M Financing For NYC Office Building
GFP Real Estate, a commercial real estate owner and manager, has borrowed more than $177 million from merchant bank BDT & MSD to acquire and partially convert a Manhattan office building into residential units, in a financing deal advised by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, according to official property records.
-
January 15, 2025
IRS Issues Corp. Bond Monthly Yield Curve For Jan.
The Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday published the corporate bond monthly yield curve for January for use in calculations for defined benefit plans, as well as corresponding segment rates and other related provisions.
-
January 14, 2025
KPMG, Biz Groups, NY Tax Bar Urge Reg Fixes To Corp. AMT
Energy company and life insurance groups have proposed industry-specific adjustments to the U.S. corporate alternative minimum tax regulations, while the New York State Bar Association and KPMG advocate for simpler accounting methods to assess compliance, according to comment letters to the U.S. Treasury Department.
-
January 14, 2025
House GOP Urges TCJA Permanency At First 2025 Tax Hearing
The 2017 tax law's expiring provisions, including the opportunity zone tax incentives, credit for advanced manufacturing and child tax credit expansion, must be made permanent as soon as possible, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith said Tuesday.
-
January 14, 2025
IRS Floats Counting Affiliate Pay In $1M Pay Deduction Cap
Compensation from affiliates of publicly traded companies would count toward the $1 million limit on tax deductions for performance-based pay of high-earning employees under rules proposed Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service.
-
January 14, 2025
Man Didn't Prove Travel, Vehicle Deductions, Tax Court Says
An Ohio man the IRS said incorrectly claimed nearly $14,000 in travel- and vehicle-related costs failed to substantiate them, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday, including failing to remember the names of trade shows he said he attended in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
-
January 14, 2025
Easement Worth $1M, Not $18M, Gov't Tells 11th Circ.
The U.S. Tax Court was right to believe expert testimony that a claimed conservation easement donation of roughly $18 million was only worth $1 million, the government told the Eleventh Circuit, urging it to reject the donors' claims that the expert was unreliable.
-
January 14, 2025
IRS Appoints 18 Members To Advisory Council
The Internal Revenue Service appointed 18 new members to its advisory council to serve three-year terms starting this month, the agency said Tuesday.
-
January 14, 2025
IRS Releases Latest Surprise Healthcare Bill Calculation Rate
The Internal Revenue Service provided Tuesday a percentage increase for calculating certain out-of-network healthcare coverage for 2025 under legislation that barred surprise medical bills.
-
January 14, 2025
Trump Announces Plans To Create 'External Revenue Service'
President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he planned to create an "External Revenue Service" that would collect tariffs and revenue from foreign countries.
Expert Analysis
-
Fixing Up Cars Makes Me A Better Lawyer
From problem-solving to patience and adaptability to organization, the skills developed working under the hood of a car directly translate to being a more effective lawyer, says Christopher Mdeway at Kaufman Dolowich.
-
A New Tax On Employers Could Help Curb Illegal Immigration
To better enforce the law against hiring immigrants unauthorized to work in the U.S., Congress should enact a punitive excise tax on compensation paid to such immigrants and amend the False Claims Act to allow qui tam actions against employers for failure to pay such tax, says Ajay Gupta at Moore Tax Law Group.
-
Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team
In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.
-
Justices May Find Gov't Can Keep Fraudulent Transfer Benefit
Based on the justices' questions at the recently argued U.S. v. Miller, the Supreme Court appears prepared to hold that the U.S. — unlike any other creditor — is permitted to retain the benefits of a fraudulent transfer to the detriment of other bankruptcy creditors, says Kevin Morse at Clark Hill.
-
Tax Court Should Update Framework For Defining Insurance
The U.S. Tax Court's unnecessary determination in Royalty Management Insurance v. Commissioner that a fraudulent transaction did not contain the hallmarks of a legitimate insurance transaction applies an outdated analysis that threatens the captive insurance sector and illustrates the need for a more modern framework to define true insurance, says Matthew Queen at the Queen Firm.
-
When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US
As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.
-
Impact Of Corporate Transparency Act Ambiguity On Banks
Even though banks generally needn't file beneficial ownership information reports, financial institutions must continue to monitor the status of the Corporate Transparency Act and understand its requirements in case the nationwide injunction that was issued against the CTA earlier this month is overturned, say attorneys at Armstrong Teasdale.
-
6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School
Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.
-
Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware
Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
-
Congress Should Expand Investment Options For 403(b)s
Lawmakers should pass pending legislation to give 403(b) plan participants access to collective investment trusts, leveling the playing field for public sector retirement investors by giving them an investment option their private sector counterparts have had for decades, says Jason Levy at Great Gray Trust Company.
-
Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out
In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
-
Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity
Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
-
Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.