Federal
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May 16, 2024
Biden Admin Proposes To Loosen Restrictions On Marijuana
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that his administration has formally recommended relaxing restrictions on marijuana, marking the most significant federal policy shift on cannabis since the drug was criminalized more than 50 years ago.
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May 16, 2024
US Must Produce Emails Between IRS Managers, Docs Leaker
The government must produce emails between Internal Revenue Service managers and a former contractor who leaked thousands of wealthy people's tax returns, a Florida federal judge has ordered, saying the materials are relevant to a billionaire's case accusing the agency of responsibility for the leak.
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May 16, 2024
IRS Cancels Hearing On Direct Pay Partnership Tax Rules
The Internal Revenue Service canceled a planned public hearing on proposed regulations that would allow certain unincorporated organizations to be excluded from the partnership tax rules for direct payments of green energy tax credits.
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May 16, 2024
Treasury Provides Extra Relief For Bonus Energy Tax Credits
The U.S. Treasury Department provided additional safe harbors Thursday that clean energy project developers can use to qualify for bonus tax credits for domestically sourcing their steel and aluminum parts in response to the Biden administration's new trade restrictions on solar products from China.
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May 15, 2024
Conn. Strip Club Owner Ran 'Brothel,' Hid $5.7M, Feds Say
The man in charge of a Connecticut strip club and two of his associates operated the business as a brothel, took payments for "commercial sex acts," lied to secure a $150,000 federal COVID-19 relief grant, and hid $5.7 million in income from the IRS, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.
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May 15, 2024
Russian Gas Ex-CFO Can't Nix $44M FBAR Suit, Judge Rules
The former chief financial officer of a Russian gas company who was sentenced to seven years in prison for hiding money in Swiss banks can't escape the government's civil suit seeking nearly $44 million in reporting penalties, a Florida federal judge ruled Wednesday.
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May 15, 2024
House Panel Advances Tax-Exempt Org Oversight Bills
The House Ways and Means Committee approved a package of bills Wednesday that would increase scrutiny of foreign donations to tax-exempt organizations, including legislation that would require those organizations to publicly report the donations.
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May 15, 2024
Schulte Roth Adds Ex-Kleinberg Kaplan Partner To Tax Group
Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP added a former Kleinberg Kaplan Wolff & Cohen PC partner with a focus on private investment funds to its tax group in New York.
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May 15, 2024
11th Circ. Judge Doubts Defense Of IRS Easement Notice
An Eleventh Circuit judge was skeptical Wednesday of the government's arguments that the Internal Revenue Service could issue a notice imposing reporting requirements on potentially abusive conservation easements without soliciting public feedback that administrative law requires.
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May 15, 2024
3 Key Takeaways From Floated Foreign Trust Reporting Rules
Proposed rules for reporting transactions with foreign trusts recently issued by the U.S. Treasury Department provide breathing room on disclosure requirements for certain offshore retirement accounts, but leave open some questions about classification. Here, Law360 breaks down three sections of the proposed foreign trust reporting regulations.
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May 15, 2024
House Judiciary Chair Seeks Docs On IRS Backdating Probe
The House Judiciary Committee's Republican chairman asked an IRS watchdog to reveal findings from investigations into allegations of IRS employee misconduct, including in a high-profile $38 million conservation easement deduction case in which the agency admitted to backdating evidence.
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May 15, 2024
Senate Finance Panel Schedules Hearing On Tax Accounts
The Senate Finance Committee will meet next week to discuss investment in tax-advantaged accounts and its impact on children, the committee said Wednesday.
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May 15, 2024
Pardoned NJ Atty Suspended Over Tax, Fraud Convictions
A former Gilmore & Monahan PA partner — who was convicted of failing to pay payroll taxes and lying on a loan application, and was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump — has received a two-year suspension from practicing law in New Jersey, though it will be largely offset by a previous suspension he served, according to a Wednesday order.
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May 15, 2024
IRS Not On Hook For Ohio Woman's Legal Fees, Court Says
The Internal Revenue Service is not liable to pay nearly $87,000 in legal fees of an Ohio woman because the agency's position was "substantially justified" throughout the woman's pursuit of a refund, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday.
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May 15, 2024
Applicable Federal Interest Rates To Rise In June
Applicable federal rates for income tax purposes will increase in June, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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May 15, 2024
IRS Issues Static Mortality Tables For 2025 Defined Plans
The Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday released the updated static mortality tables used to calculate the funding target and other items for defined benefit pension plans during the 2025 calendar year.
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May 15, 2024
Pension Plan Segment Rates Increase In May
Segment rates for calculating pension plan funding rose in May, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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May 15, 2024
IRS Working To Prevent Child Support Collection Disruption
The Internal Revenue Service is working to prevent disruption of federal tax refund offsets — including garnishment for owed child support — affecting Native American tribal governments and other taxpayers, the agency said.
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May 14, 2024
Northwestern Settles Tax Law Prof's Age Bias Suit
Northwestern University agreed to settle a law school professor's age bias suit filed in Illinois federal court claiming he was given smaller raises year-over-year in comparison with his younger colleagues after he cast aside the institution's push for him to retire early.
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May 14, 2024
Law Prof Comes To Treasury's Aid In 3M Transfer Pricing Fight
The U.S. Department of the Treasury did not act arbitrarily when it wrote transfer pricing regulations that allowed the government to disregard foreign legal restrictions on royalty payments when allocating income to 3M from an affiliate, a law professor told the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday.
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May 14, 2024
Yellen, Werfel Urged To Make E-Filing Program Permanent
The Internal Revenue Service's pilot program for free electronic tax return filing should be made permanent and grown, a coalition of groups that endorse the project told IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a letter Tuesday.
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May 14, 2024
Billionaire's Pilot Cops To Tax Count, Avoids Insider Trial
A pilot from Virginia accused of profiting from stock tips fed to him by British billionaire Joe Lewis on Tuesday copped to dodging taxes on $500,000 of income from Lewis' company, in a plea deal that avoids an insider trading trial.
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May 14, 2024
Microsemi Calls IRS' Penalty Approval 'Woefully Inadequate'
An Internal Revenue Service supervisor's sign-off on a transfer pricing penalty for Microsemi was "woefully inadequate" to meet statutory requirements for penalty approval, the semiconductor manufacturer told the U.S. Tax Court.
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May 14, 2024
Ex-Husch Blackwell, Dykema Atty Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion
A former Husch Blackwell LLP partner who helped launch Dykema Gossett PLLC's Milwaukee office two years ago has agreed to plead guilty in Wisconsin federal court to willfully evading paying income tax, which could land him in prison for over a year and will force him to pay almost $4 million in restitution to the IRS.
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May 14, 2024
Big Refund Filings Could Be Improper, IRS Says
Inaccurate advice from social media, as well as a series of tax scams, has resulted in an increase in questionable, inflated refund claims, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.
Expert Analysis
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Unconventional Profits Interest Structures Find New Support
A recent U.S. Tax Court ruling should provide comfort that less-than-plain-vanilla profits interest structures, created to achieve complicated economic arrangements, can succeed in generating more optimal tax outcomes, provided the terms are properly drafted, says Daren Shaver at Hanson Bridgett.
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Roadblocks For Cannabis Employers Setting Up 401(k) Plans
Though the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act generally allow cannabis businesses to establish 401(k) plans for their employees, companies must still pick their way through uncertainties around tax deductions and recruiting reliable vendors, say attorneys at Shipman & Goodwin.
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How Foreign Info Return Penalty Case May Benefit Taxpayers
The U.S. Tax Court's recent decision that the Internal Revenue Service cannot penalize taxpayers for failing to file foreign corporation information returns may give similarly situated taxpayers an opportunity to also avoid penalties, provided they protect their rights before the decision is overturned or mooted by legislation, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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What's Unique — And What's Not — In Trump Protective Order
A Manhattan judge's recent protective order limiting former President Donald Trump's access to evidence included restrictions uniquely tailored to the defendant, which should remind defense attorneys that it's always a good idea to fight these seemingly standard orders, says Julia Jayne at Jayne Law.
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The Nuts And Bolts Of IRS Domestic Content Tax Credit
Recent IRS guidance provides specifics on how renewable energy projects can qualify for bonus tax credits by meeting U.S. domestic content rules, but also creates a qualification framework that will be complicated for project developers to navigate, say Scott Cockerham and Wolfram Pohl at Orrick.
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How Cities Can Tackle Post-Pandemic Budgeting Dilemmas
Due to increasing office vacancies around the country, cities may consider politically unpopular actions to avoid bankruptcy, but they could also look to the capital markets to ride out the current real estate crisis and achieve debt service savings to help balance their budgets, say attorneys at Cadwalader.
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Guidance Adds Clarity To Energy Communities Bonus Credits
Recent IRS guidance on the Inflation Reduction Act's changes to tax credits for renewable energy projects offers much-needed pointers for developers and financing parties, and should allow them to more comfortably incorporate special bonus credits for projects in energy communities into their transactions, say Jorge Medina and Ira Aghai at Shearman.
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Taxing The Digital Economy: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
U.S. tech companies should watch for important developments in international taxation, including the resolution of Apple's decade-old state aid case, growing frustration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax plan and adoption of the digital services tax instead, says Joyce Beebe at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
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Big Tax Changes For Multinational Cos. In Budget Proposal
The Biden administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposes changes that would materially alter decades-old Internal Revenue Code provisions, requiring a shift in multinational corporations' tax planning strategies comparable to that required after enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, say Xenia Garofalo and Kyle Colonna at Eversheds Sutherland.
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SVB Collapse Reinvigorates Bank Accounting Debate
Silicon Valley Bank's sudden collapse revives questions over whether fair value or amortized cost accounting is the most appropriate for banks' financial reporting — a controversy that's crucial for understanding what information could have helped market participants better understand SVB's financial condition, say consultants at Analysis Group.
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Brownfield Renewables Guidance Leaves Site Eligibility Murky
Recent IRS guidance sheds some light on the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for renewable energy development on contaminated sites — but the eligibility of certain sites for brownfield status remains uncertain, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.
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Get Ready For IRS Criminal Crackdown On Crypto
Recent developments at the IRS, from a new operating plan to the announcement of a centralized data center, signal that the agency is ramping up criminal enforcement against those using digital assets to evade tax liabilities — and given its high conviction rate, companies and individuals must prioritize compliance, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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NFT Tax Guidance Shows IRS Interest In Crypto Enforcement
The IRS' first ever guidance addressing the federal income tax treatment of NFTs indicates the agency could take a potentially aggressive stance in enforcing U.S. tax laws in the NFT and crypto spaces, which could have a significant impact on the self-directed IRA market, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.