Federal

  • January 08, 2025

    H&R Block To Pay $7M Fine In False Ad Settlement With FTC

    Tax preparation giant H&R Block will pay a $7 million fine to help customers harmed by what the Federal Trade Commission called its deceptive advertising practices and make it easier for customers to downgrade to cheaper products under a settlement with the agency announced Wednesday.

  • January 08, 2025

    IRS Updates Guidance For Taxes In Employment Disputes

    The Internal Revenue Service updated guidance Wednesday related to disputes over whether individuals are considered employees for employment tax purposes as well as clarified situations in which an employer can remit unpaid taxes at reduced rates in cases where the employer treated an employee as a nonemployee.

  • January 08, 2025

    Consultant Owes Taxes, Fraud Penalties, Tax Court Says

    A healthcare consultant digitally altered documents to claim unwarranted deductions, including one for a three-day hospital stay the medical facility said never happened, according to a U.S. Tax Court ruling Wednesday that sustained $53,000 in taxes and fraud penalties against her.

  • January 08, 2025

    Worker Tax Credit Processing Delays Called Serious Problem

    Continued delays in processing employee retention tax credit claims is the most serious problem facing the Internal Revenue Service, the national taxpayer advocate said Wednesday in her annual report to Congress, recommending that the agency lift its moratorium on processing new claims.

  • January 08, 2025

    US, Swiss To Give Retirement Plans Lower Dividend Tax Rates

    The Swiss and U.S. competent authorities agreed to provide lower tax rates on dividends for several types of retirement entities such as trusts that run pensions, qualified annuity plans and individual plans under the two countries' tax treaty, the Swiss government said Wednesday.

  • January 08, 2025

    5th Circ. Remands Tax Restitution Nonpayment Sentence

    The Fifth Circuit ordered a lower court to reconsider its decision to send a woman who evaded taxes back to prison, saying it should hear her new argument that only a civil punishment was allowed for her failure to pay restitution after she was released.

  • January 08, 2025

    Feds Want 2 Years In Prison For Atty In Payroll Tax Fraud

    A former Ohio attorney who managed his wife's dental practice should spend at least two years in prison for causing $750,000 in federal tax losses and failing to pay employment taxes, prosecutors urged Wednesday, saying he used the business as a personal piggy bank.

  • January 08, 2025

    IRS Delays Thursday Deadlines For Carter Day Of Mourning

    Any federal tax payments or returns due Thursday can now be paid or filed Friday due to the national day of mourning for President Jimmy Carter, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.

  • January 07, 2025

    H&R Block Accused Of Negligence In Data Breach

    An H&R Block user who claims cybercriminals disseminated his personal information on the dark web, after a data breach at the tax preparation firm, accused the company in a proposed class action of failing to properly protect consumer data.

  • January 07, 2025

    Cos. Seek Pause Of Retention Credit Processing In Litigation

    Two companies that helped clients obtain pandemic-era employee retention tax credits asked Arizona federal district court Tuesday to pause the IRS' use of a system for automatically processing claims, saying harm caused by this process cannot be remedied after litigation.

  • January 07, 2025

    7th Circ. Upholds Tax Penalties For Life Insurance Scammer

    The Seventh Circuit upheld Tuesday nearly $400,000 in tax penalties against a man who served prison time for falsifying his returns as part of a scheme to poison his wife and collect on a $20 million life insurance policy.

  • January 07, 2025

    Treasury Finalizes Clean Electricity Tax Credit Regs

    The U.S. Treasury Department released final regulations Tuesday for a pair of new tax credits that reward various types of electricity generation from technologies that don't emit greenhouse gases, replacing recently expired incentives that benefited only renewable energy sources.

  • January 07, 2025

    Lowenstein Sandler Elects 5-Atty Partner Class For 2025

    Lowenstein Sandler LLP announced a class of five new partners for 2025 this week, drawing on attorneys working from New York and New Jersey and bringing expertise in tax law, environmental law, white collar defense and more.

  • January 07, 2025

    Baker McKenzie Adds Tax Partners In California And New York

    Baker McKenzie is fortifying its tax practice by hiring a partner in San Francisco with experience in planning tax positions and handling controversies for technology-driven companies and rehiring another in New York who is skilled at state taxes and journalism.

  • January 07, 2025

    BankUnited's $40M Tax Refund Bid Too Late, Judge Rules

    BankUnited is not owed a nearly $40 million tax refund stemming from losses it incurred when it took over a failed bank because it requested the refund too late, a Florida federal judge ruled Tuesday, agreeing with the U.S. government.

  • January 06, 2025

    Trump Selects Long Island Judge For EDNY's Top Prosecutor

    President-elect Donald Trump, who was born in Queens, has picked a Long Island state court judge to serve as the next U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, according to an announcement made Monday on Truth Social.

  • January 06, 2025

    New Rules Won't Lift Political Clouds Over Hydrogen Projects

    The Biden administration's new rules to make hydrogen production tax credits more accessible for project developers and investors may not move the needle much for the industry given President-elect Donald Trump's vow to at least partially repeal the statute that created the credits.

  • January 06, 2025

    House Speaker Sets April Target For Tax Law Extension Vote

    The House of Representatives will send a reconciliation bill to the Senate by the end of April that will include major Republican priorities, including the renewal of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions scheduled to expire at the end of the year, House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

  • January 06, 2025

    Judge Allows Sale Of Shared Dental Practice To Satisfy Taxes

    The federal government can foreclose on a jointly owned dental practice to satisfy the roughly $500,000 tax debt of one of its partners, a New Jersey federal court ruled Monday, rejecting the request of a partner dentist who urged the court to spare his share.

  • January 06, 2025

    Convicted Atty Who 'Lost Everything' Fights To Keep License

    A Philadelphia-based personal injury attorney who was convicted for not paying income tax on more than $8 million in revenue he earned and for failing to pay almost $60,000 in payroll taxes argued Monday he should not permanently lose his ability to practice law in New Jersey.

  • January 06, 2025

    Tax Whistleblower Urges High Court To Review $690M Claim

    A whistleblower is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his claim for up to $690 million as his share of the $2.3 billion recovered through Internal Revenue Service investigations that he said resulted from his cooperation.

  • January 06, 2025

    Proskauer Adds New Funds Partners In NY, DC

    Proskauer Rose LLP announced Monday it has rung in the new year by adding two new partners to its private funds group, with the addition of a tax expert from Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP in New York and a regulatory specialist from the SEC in Washington, D.C.

  • January 06, 2025

    US Wants More Time To Counter Altria's $106M Tax Refund Bid

    Tobacco giant Altria's complaint seeking a $106 million tax refund related to its interests in beverage company Anheuser-Busch requires more research to counter in the event a Virginia federal court decides it can move forward, the U.S. government said in requesting time for potential discovery.

  • January 03, 2025

    Senate Finance Committee Adds Six New Members

    Six lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, have joined the Senate Finance Committee for the 119th Congress, Committee Chairman Mike Crapo said in a statement Friday.

  • January 03, 2025

    Treasury Unveils Flexible Final Regs For Hydrogen Tax Credit

    The U.S. Treasury Department released final rules Friday for hydrogen production tax credits that allow fuel produced using nuclear-generated electricity or methane to qualify for the incentive, making the regulations more flexible than what was proposed last year.

Expert Analysis

  • 7 E-Discovery Predictions For 2024 And Beyond

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    The legal and technical issues of e-discovery now affect virtually every lawsuit, and in the year to come, practitioners can expect practices and policies to evolve in a number of ways, from the expanded use of relevancy redactions to mandated information security provisions in protective orders, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024

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    Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • Tech CEO Tax Ruling A Warning For Forward Contracts

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    In McKelvey v. Commissioner, the U.S. Tax Court decided that deceased Monster.com founder Andrew McKelvey terminated his underlying obligations when he extended variable prepaid forward contracts, demonstrating why startup founders, early employees and investors should think carefully before amending derivative agreements, say Daren Shaver and Trent Tanzi at Hanson Bridgett.

  • 4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year

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    As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.

  • What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like

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    As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • 4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News

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    Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.

  • Unpacking The Proposed Production Tax Credit Regulations

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    Recently proposed tax regulations for claiming the U.S. clean-energy manufacturers' production credit under Internal Revenue Code Section 45X are less stringent than many had feared but fail to define a fundamental eligibility requirement, say Casey August and Jared Sanders at Morgan Lewis.

  • 10 Considerations For Litigating A New York Tax Case

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    While some of New York’s recently adopted corporate tax regulations are likely to face legal challenges, aggrieved taxpayers should answer certain questions before deciding to embark on the tax litigation process, say Cyavash Ahmadi and Jeffrey Friedman at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Charting The Course For Digital Assets In 2024

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    Although 2023 was a tough year for the digital asset industry, upcoming court decisions, legislation and regulatory action will bring clarity, allowing the industry to expand and evolve, and the government will decide what innovation it will allow without challenge, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.

  • Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

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    Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.

  • Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities

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    Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.

  • How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season

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    Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Giving The Gov't Drug Patent March-In Authority Is Bad Policy

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    The Biden administration's recent proposal to allow government seizure of certain taxpayer-funded drug patents is a terrible idea that would negate the benefits of government-funded research, to the detriment of patients and the wider economy, says Wayne Winegarden at Pacific Research Institute.

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