Federal

  • 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.

  • February 03, 2025

    Schumer Warns Of 'Hostile Takeover' From DOGE

    Top Senate Democrats on Monday railed against access granted to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency that allowed the outfit's employees to tap into the U.S. Department of Treasury's federal payment system over the weekend.

  • February 03, 2025

    Man Failed To Prove Biz Loss Claims, Tax Court Says

    A Connecticut man failed to adequately back up his argument that he was entitled to nearly $85,000 in partnership losses tied to two businesses, the U.S. Tax Court said Monday, upholding an IRS determination that also hit him with an accuracy-related penalty.

  • February 03, 2025

    Senate Tees Up Vote On Trump's Pick To Lead OMB

    The U.S. Senate set the stage Monday to proceed with a vote on President Donald Trump's pick to be the new chief of the Office of Management and Budget.

  • February 03, 2025

    DC Circ. Urged To Back IRS' Denial Of Whistleblower Award

    The D.C. Circuit should affirm the IRS' rejection of a man's claim for a whistleblower award because it was filed too late and the agency never collected proceeds or took action based on the tip, the federal government argued Monday.

  • February 03, 2025

    IRS Defends Process For Denying Worker Credit Claims

    The Internal Revenue Service defended its process for rejecting applications for pandemic-era worker tax credits that it deems too risky to pay out, telling an Arizona federal court that contrary to the claims of two companies suing the agency over denials, its response has been reasonable.

  • February 03, 2025

    DC Judge Joins RI In Blocking Trump Funding Freeze

    A D.C. federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing a freeze on federal spending while a group of nonprofits sue over the move, ruling the pause appears to "suffer from infirmities of a constitutional magnitude."

  • February 03, 2025

    Couple Cannot Deduct IVF Surrogacy Expenses, IRS Says

    A married couple who said medical problems require them to use a pregnancy surrogate to have a child may not deduct their payments for in vitro fertilization for the surrogate as their own medical expenses, the Internal Revenue Service said in a private letter ruling.

  • January 31, 2025

    Funding Freezes 'Commonplace,' Feds Tell DC Judge

    The Trump administration is asking a D.C. federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging a freeze on federal spending outlined in a since-rescinded memo from the White House budget office, telling the court that the withdrawal moots the litigation.

  • January 31, 2025

    Supreme Court Eyes Its 'Next Frontier' In FCC Delegation Case

    A case about broadband subsidies will give the U.S. Supreme Court the chance to revive a long-dormant separation of powers principle that attorneys say could upend regulations in numerous industries and trigger a power shift that would make last term's shake-up of federal agency authority pale in comparison. And a majority of the court already appears to support its resurrection.

  • January 31, 2025

    The Tax Angle: TCJA Renewal Cost, ACA Credits, OMB Pick

    From a look at the budget impact of renewing the 2017 tax overhaul law to uncertainty surrounding the renewal of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits and the nomination of a new chief of the Office of Management and Budget, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few of the week's developing tax stories.

  • January 31, 2025

    Couple Can't Sue IRS Without First Paying Tax, 5th Circ. Says

    A couple who claimed they overpaid their taxes and should be allowed to sue the IRS for a refund must first pay the taxes the agency says are due, the Fifth Circuit ruled Friday, saying it was bound by U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • January 31, 2025

    Akin Hires Tax Pro From Cooley In London

    Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP announced Friday that a partner at Cooley LLP will join as a tax partner in Akin's London office later in 2025. 

  • February 14, 2025

    Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2025 Editorial Boards

    Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2025 editorial advisory boards.

  • January 31, 2025

    Goldstein Case Raises The Stakes For A DOJ Office In Tumult

    The bombshell tax-crimes case of U.S. Supreme Court lawyer Tom Goldstein landed at a U.S. Department of Justice outpost in Maryland that has been plagued in recent years by botched cases and internal strife — pitting a beleaguered U.S. attorney against a pair of former Donald Trump attorneys itching for a fight.

  • January 31, 2025

    Trump Funding Freeze Blocked As Court Doubts Reversal

    A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday issued a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from freezing spending on federal grant and aid programs, calling the move illegal and saying the issue was not mooted by a White House memo claiming the directive had been rescinded.

  • January 31, 2025

    Tax Group Of The Year: Sullivan & Cromwell

    Sullivan & Cromwell LLP's diverse tax practice went from strength to strength this year, from advising well-known companies like Boeing and Discover that inked multibillion-dollar deals to counseling industry leaders in shaking up their sectors, helping it earn a place among the 2024 Law360 Tax Groups of the Year.

  • January 31, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Cravath, Gibson Dunn, Milbank

    In this week's Taxation with Representation, Eversource Energy sells Aquarion Water Co., Diversified Energy Partners acquires oil and gas company Maverick, Lantheus Holdings buys Evergreen Theragnostics, and NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson becomes the majority owner in the Legacy Motor Club racing team.

  • January 31, 2025

    6th Circ. Affirms Pot Biz Owner's $2.8M Tax Restitution

    The owner of a medical marijuana dispensary who was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay $2.8 million in restitution to the IRS after being convicted of tax crimes failed to convince the Sixth Circuit that Congress lacked the power to tax his sales of the drug.

  • January 31, 2025

    Data Centers Blur Lines At BigLaw Firms

    The rise in complex, hybrid data center deals is increasingly calling for real estate, infrastructure and private equity attorneys to work together and, in some cases, to combine their practice groups.

  • January 31, 2025

    Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin

    The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, included final rules that target abusive tax avoidance by large partnerships using basis shifting, requiring partnerships to report certain transactions among related members.

  • January 30, 2025

    Retired Atty Says Schwab, Others Flubbed His Contributions

    A retired attorney said companies that managed his individual retirement plan, including Charles Schwab and Barnes & Thornburg LLP, hampered his tax savings by incorrectly classifying his pretax retirement contributions as posttax contributions, according to a lawsuit filed in an Indiana district court.

  • January 30, 2025

    IRS Allowed Summonses For Records In Foreign Assets Case

    A Georgia federal court gave the Internal Revenue Service the go-ahead to issue summonses for the records of a group of financial institutions that clients may have used to avoid taxes, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.

  • January 30, 2025

    Tax Court OKs Penalty Sign-Off In $18M Easement Dispute

    An IRS agent complied with a requirement that her supervisor approve tax penalties she asserted against an Alabama partnership whose nearly $18 million deduction for a conservation easement donation was rejected by the agency, the U.S. Tax Court said Thursday.

  • January 30, 2025

    Tax Court OKs Levy Against Woman Who Didn't Back Up Args

    The Internal Revenue Service didn't act improperly when it upheld a levy against a California woman who owed tax debts for multiple years, the U.S. Tax Court determined Thursday, saying she routinely failed to back up her assertions.

Expert Analysis

  • Reading Between The Lines Of Justices' Moore Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent Moore v. U.S. decision, that the Internal Revenue Code Section 965 did not violate the 16th Amendment, was narrowly tailored to minimally disrupt existing tax regimes, but the justices' various opinions leave the door open to future tax challenges and provide clues for what the battles may look like, say Caroline Ngo and Le Chen at McDermott.

  • A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates

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    Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.

  • States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions

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    Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • After Chevron: Uniform Tax Law Interpretation Not Guaranteed

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    The loss of Chevron deference will significantly alter the relationship between the IRS, courts and Congress when it comes to tax law, potentially precipitating more transparent rulemaking, but also provoking greater uncertainty due to variability in judicial interpretation, say Michelle Levin and Carneil Wilson at Dentons.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges

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    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.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    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.

  • A Tale Of 2 Trump Cases: The Rule Of Law Is A Live Issue

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    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.

  • Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    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.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    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.

  • Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    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.

  • Tracking Implementation Of IRA Programs As Election Nears

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    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.

  • Unpacking The Circuit Split Over A Federal Atty Fee Rule

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    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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