Federal
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February 06, 2025
Dems Demand Info On DOGE's Taxpayer Data Access
House Ways and Means Committee Democrats demanded in a letter released Thursday to know whether Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has been given access to individuals' confidential tax data.
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February 06, 2025
Baker McKenzie Partner Rejoins Firm From Apple
Baker McKenzie announced that a former partner specializing in trade and customs law has rejoined the firm after serving as principal counsel and the lead adviser on global trade matters for Apple.
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February 06, 2025
Trump Lays Out Tax Priorities In Meeting With GOP
President Donald Trump encouraged Republican leaders in Congress to fulfill his campaign promises to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, overtime pay and tips and to renew the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act this year, a White House spokesperson told reporters Thursday.
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February 06, 2025
Democrats Pitch Taxing Carried Interest As Ordinary Income
Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate proposed on Thursday ending the favorable tax treatment of income from carried interest, saying they want to close what they describe as a tax loophole that unfairly benefits professional investors.
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February 06, 2025
US To Appeal Block On Corporate Transparency Act
The federal government plans to challenge an order preventing it from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act's reporting requirements for businesses, following the U.S. Supreme Court's pause of another nationwide block on the law in a separate case, according to a notice filed in a Texas federal court.
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February 06, 2025
IRS Correctly Upheld Levy On $11.2M Tax Bill
The IRS correctly upheld a levy for over $11.2 million in quarterly taxes owed by a South Carolina business, the U.S. Tax Court said Thursday, finding that it brought a collection alternative on to-be-processed employee retention credits too late.
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February 06, 2025
Musk's Access To Records Blocked In DOGE, Treasury Suit
A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Thursday approved a consent order blocking Elon Musk and additional Department of Government Efficiency employees from accessing the federal government's payment systems, although a "special government employee" will have limited access as the Treasury Department and suing plaintiffs spar over a preliminary injunction.
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February 06, 2025
Family Says Tax Shelter Creator To Blame In $81M IRS Case
Counsel for members of a wealthy extended family accused of shorting the IRS nearly $81 million by knowingly participating in an unlawful tax shelter told a Manhattan federal judge Thursday that the creator of the so-called Son-of-Boss scheme is to blame.
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February 06, 2025
Metals Dealer Says Partners Lost $12M In Attys' Tax Scam
A precious metals dealer and his partners said they were fleeced of $12 million by attorneys who directed them to form a partnership and take illegal tax deductions for intellectual property, according to a complaint filed in Colorado federal court.
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February 06, 2025
Trump's Federal Worker Buyout Plan Put On Hold
A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday put on hold the Trump administration's "deferred resignation" program for federal employees, delaying the deadline for workers to accept the offer until Monday while the court weighs the legality of the move.
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February 06, 2025
6th Circ. Won't Reconsider Gold Broker's $3M Tax Bill
A Tennessee gold and silver broker found liable for $3 million in tax deficiencies after he presented fatuous arguments in the Sixth Circuit that he wasn't subject to income taxes will not have his case reheard by the appellate court, the court said Thursday.
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February 05, 2025
Key IRS Workers Can't Do 'Resign' Deal Until After Tax Season
Internal Revenue Service workers were notified Wednesday that employees working in positions considered necessary to the tax filing season can't accept President Donald Trump's resignation offer until mid-May.
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February 05, 2025
Israeli Law Firm Allowed To Amend Suit Against GILTI Regs
A D.C. federal court on Wednesday let the owner of an Israeli law firm amend his challenge of regulations for the U.S. tax on global intangible low-taxed income, a provision of the 2017 tax overhaul.
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February 05, 2025
US Bill Aims To Ax Tax Incentives For Multinational Cos.
Congress should repeal and replace federal tax measures that allow multinational corporations to reduce taxable income in the United States, including by holding assets abroad, according to two Democratic lawmakers who reintroduced a bill to that effect Wednesday.
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February 05, 2025
Dems Seek Further Review Of Treasury And DOGE
Democrats are not satisfied with the answers they've received from the U.S. Department of Treasury on access granted to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to the federal payment system and are looking at other avenues to scrutinize his activity.
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February 05, 2025
Goldstein, Saying He's Mired In Debt, Asks To Redo Bail Terms
Prominent U.S. Supreme Court attorney and SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein has a negative net worth of more than $3.3 million and is mired in debt to his attorneys, he said in a filing Wednesday seeking to modify the conditions of his release ahead of a trial on federal criminal tax evasion charges.
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February 05, 2025
Ex-Animal Hospital Owners Blame CPA For Taxes Paid Late
A couple who owed $2.8 million in taxes after selling their veterinary hospital told an Idaho federal court that they missed the payment deadline because their accountant stopped responding to them after promising to finish their return, prompting them to hire a private investigator.
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February 04, 2025
External Revenue Service Could Help Solve Unpaid Duty Issue
President Donald Trump's call for a new agency designed to collect trade revenue, billed as the External Revenue Service, may be more than a flashy concept and could tackle lingering inefficiencies associated with duty collection, experts say.
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February 04, 2025
Akerman Adds Ex-DOJ Tax Atty From Chamberlain Hrdlicka
Akerman LLP has brought on a former Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney from Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry PC as a tax partner in Atlanta.
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February 04, 2025
Kostelanetz Adds Tax Pro From Lowenstein Sandler
Kostelanetz LLP said a former partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP has joined the firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office.
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February 04, 2025
Movie Review, Memorabilia Income Not Tax-Free, Court Says
A Georgia man must pay self-employment taxes on the over $50,000 he generated from writing freelance movie reviews and selling movie memorabilia, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Tuesday, also saying he must pay an associated accuracy-related penalty.
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February 04, 2025
3rd Circ. Urged To Nix Tax On $191M In Family Pharma Feud
A pharmaceutical company's $191 million payment settling a family feud over shares of the business did not include imputed interest triggering higher taxes as the U.S. government claims, a trust for family members who received the money told the Third Circuit.
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February 04, 2025
Tomato Paste Cos. Ask 9th Circ. To Revisit Deduction Denial
A pair of tomato paste producers have requested that the Ninth Circuit revisit its decision denying them a tax deduction for facility upgrades, arguing that a panel's majority ruling in December conflicted with the appellate court's established precedent.
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February 04, 2025
IRS Cancels Hearing On Admin Requirements For Direct Pay
The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday canceled a hearing scheduled for this Friday on proposed regulations related to administrative requirements for tax-exempt entities looking to take advantage of new rules enabling direct cash payment of clean energy tax credits.
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February 03, 2025
Trump Orders Plan For Creating US Sovereign Wealth Fund
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling on the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Department of Commerce to come up with a plan to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and said the social media app TikTok could potentially be put in the proposed fund.
Expert Analysis
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How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.
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How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts
As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.
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A Tale Of 2 Trump Cases: The Rule Of Law Is A Live Issue
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week in Trump v. U.S., holding that former President Donald Trump has broad immunity from prosecution, undercuts the rule of law, while the former president’s New York hush money conviction vindicates it in eight key ways, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.
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3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron
The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem
The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.
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Tracking Implementation Of IRA Programs As Election Nears
As the Biden administration races to cement key regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, a number of the law's programs and incentives are at risk of delay or repeal if Republicans retake control of Congress, the White House or both — so stakeholders should closely watch ongoing IRA implementation and guidance, say attorneys at Squire Patton.
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Unpacking The Circuit Split Over A Federal Atty Fee Rule
Federal circuit courts that have addressed Rule 41(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are split as to whether attorney fees are included as part of the costs of a previously dismissed action, so practitioners aiming to recover or avoid fees should tailor arguments to the appropriate court, says Joseph Myles and Lionel Lavenue at Finnegan.
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Takeaways From Justices' Redemption Insurance Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Connelly v. U.S. examines how to determine the fair market value of shares in a closely held company for estate tax purposes, and clarifies how life insurance held by the company to enable redemption of a decedent’s shares affects that calculation, says Evelyn Haralampu at Burns & Levinson.
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6 Tips For Maximizing After-Tax Returns In Private M&A Deals
With potential tax legislation likely to spur a surge in private business sales, sellers can make the most of after-tax proceeds with strategies that include price allocation and qualified investment options, say Isaac Grossman and Daniel Studin at Morrison Cohen.
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After A Brief Hiccup, The 'Rocket Docket' Soars Back To No. 1
The Eastern District of Virginia’s precipitous 2022 fall from its storied rocket docket status appears to have been a temporary aberration, as recent statistics reveal that the court is once again back on top as the fastest federal civil trial court in the nation, says Robert Tata at Hunton.
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Recruitment Trends In Emerging Law Firm Frontiers
BigLaw firms are facing local recruitment challenges as they increasingly establish offices in cities outside of the major legal hubs, requiring them to weigh various strategies for attracting talent that present different risks and benefits, says Tom Hanlon at Buchanan Law.
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What DOL Fiduciary Rule Means For Private Fund Managers
Attorneys at Ropes & Gray discuss how the U.S. Department of Labor's recently released final fiduciary rule, which revises the agency's 1975 regulation, could potentially cause private fund managers' current marketing practices and communications to be considered fiduciary advice, and therefore subject them to strict prohibitions.