Federal
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August 08, 2024
US Asks 2nd Circ. To Uphold IRS Lien For $4.2M Restitution
The Internal Revenue Service should be allowed to proceed with a lien to collect some $4.2 million in restitution from a man who pled guilty to three counts of tax fraud, the U.S. told the Second Circuit.
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August 07, 2024
Weak Link Doomed $690M Whistleblower Claim, DC Circ. Says
A whistleblower could not get up to $690 million, or 30% of the $2.3 billion collected in an Internal Revenue Service offshore voluntary disclosure program, because the connection between his actions and the program was weak, the D.C. Circuit said Wednesday.
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August 07, 2024
Waste Co. Not Entitled To Audit Records, IRS Tells Court
Garbage-hauling giant Waste Management Inc. is not entitled to the IRS' tax files on the company from 2017, including audit records, because some documents contain return information of third parties, the agency said Wednesday.
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August 07, 2024
5th Circ. Grapples With 'Ridiculous' $100M Arbitration
A Fifth Circuit panel struggled to make sense out of a "ridiculous" arbitration proceeding that produced four contradictory arbitration awards in a legal malpractice dispute, one awarding $100 million, pressing both sides during oral arguments Wednesday to give answers about how the "spectacle" unfolded.
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August 07, 2024
'Looting' Of Co. Doesn't End S Corp. Status, Tax Court Says
While a co-owner of a California S corporation may have been the victim of two other owners "looting" the company through disproportionate distributions, such actions didn't dissolve its S corporation status, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday.
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August 07, 2024
Pension Plans' Expert Testimony Limited In $2B Tax Fraud Suit
A New York federal court decided to exclude portions of an expert's testimony on behalf of pension plans that are accused of seeking to defraud Denmark's tax agency in a $2.1 billion tax refund fraud scheme.
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August 07, 2024
Tax Court's Economic Substance Foray May Clarify Limits
A U.S. Tax Court judge plans to address an ill-defined provision governing the relevance of the economic substance doctrine in a microcaptive insurance case, offering the courts another chance to clarify an anti-abuse tool the IRS has been deploying more often.
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August 07, 2024
US Taxpayers Claimed $8.4B In Energy Credits In 2023
Taxpayers claimed $6.3 billion is residential clean energy credits and $2.1 billion in energy-efficient home improvement credits in 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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August 06, 2024
US Wants Israeli Businessman Sanctioned In $3.6M FBAR Suit
An Israeli businessman should be sanctioned for defying a Washington federal court's discovery orders by a default judgment in the U.S. government's $3.6 million case over his unreported foreign bank accounts and by another order to comply, the government said Tuesday.
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August 06, 2024
Wind Tower Co. Asks Full Fed. Circ. To Revisit Subsidy Duties
A Federal Circuit panel wrongly concluded that a 10% depreciation rate for deducting costs related to manufacturing facilities set by Canadian law was an unfair trade subsidy that justified countervailing trade duties, a wind tower manufacturer told the court in seeking a rehearing.
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August 06, 2024
Businessman Found To Owe Over $2.9M In FBAR Fines
A U.S. inventor and businessman who had been based in Hong Kong and started a company there must pay over $2.9 million in penalties for failing to report his overseas bank accounts for eight years, a Virginia federal judge ruled Tuesday.
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August 06, 2024
Tax Compliance Costs US Economy $546B, Report Says
The billions of hours spent completing Internal Revenue Service forms and tax returns, along with out-of-pocket compliance costs, ultimately costs the U.S. economy over $546 billion, the Tax Foundation reported Tuesday.
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August 06, 2024
IRS Error Doesn't Enable Kyocera's $7M Refund Suit, US Says
Electronics maker Kyocera can't seek a $7 million tax refund in federal district court because it owed taxes when it filed its original complaint, a fact that isn't changed by IRS' improper abatement of the company's liabilities before it filed an amended complaint, the government argued.
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August 06, 2024
Ayahuasca Church Asks DC Circ. To Rethink Tax Status
An Iowa church that used a psychedelic drug in its rites asked the D.C. Circuit for an en banc rehearing after a panel determined the church was correctly denied tax-exempt status since its main purpose was using a federally illegal drug.
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August 06, 2024
Bressler Grows In NJ With New Litigation, Tax Experts
Bressler Amery & Ross PC added longtime experts in tax law, trusts and estates, and commercial litigation in a recent round of expansion in New Jersey announced this week.
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August 06, 2024
Treasury Floats Rules To Address Losses Under Pillar 2
The U.S. Treasury Department proposed regulations Tuesday that outline when foreign taxes under the Pillar Two international minimum tax agreement could trigger long-standing U.S. rules that aim to prevent companies from what is known as double-dipping the same economic loss.
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August 06, 2024
NC Software Execs Can't Unravel Payroll Tax Fraud Conviction
Two former software executives found guilty of failing to pay over $600,000 in employment taxes failed to clear a steep hurdle in trying to reverse their convictions, a North Carolina federal judge said in rejecting their bid for acquittal or a new trial.
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August 06, 2024
Ex-UBS Exec Calls $4.7M In FBAR Penalties Unconstitutional
A former executive for Swiss bank UBS' North American group told a Connecticut federal court the $4.7 million in penalties he faces for willful failure to report his foreign bank accounts are unconstitutionally excessive.
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August 06, 2024
Partnership Asks Tax Court To Toss $13M Credit Reduction
An Idaho partnership asked the U.S. Tax Court to throw out an Internal Revenue Service adjustment that reduced the value of an energy investment tax credit by $13 million, saying it never claimed the credit in the first place.
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August 06, 2024
Arnold & Porter Adds Abramson Cancer Center Chief Counsel
Throughout her career and while working in progressive leadership roles for the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Mir Masud-Elias, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP's newest counsel, has asked herself the same question: Is this role the best use of her time on Earth?
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August 06, 2024
Paul Hastings Gains Tax Pro In Dallas From McDermott
Paul Hastings announced Tuesday that its meteoric growth in Texas is continuing with the addition of a partner in Dallas who strengthens its global tax practice and came aboard from McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
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August 05, 2024
9th Circ. Rejects Calif. Couple's Informal Tax Refund Bid
A California couple who for years had a practice of overpaying their federal taxes missed a critical deadline to informally claim a nearly $700,000 tax overpayment, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Monday, rejecting their request for a refund.
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August 05, 2024
FedEx Asserts Chevron Ruling Supports $84.6M Refund
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Chevron doctrine entitles FedEx to an $84.6 million tax refund by taking credits for foreign taxes it paid on offset earnings when repatriating overseas income, the package delivery giant told a Tennessee federal court.
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August 05, 2024
Truck Co. Can't Skirt $500M Excise Tax Bill, US Tells 6th Circ.
A Tennessee truck company failed to demonstrate its eligibility for a safe harbor that allowed it to escape from over $500 million in excise taxes and penalties over refurbished trucks it sold, the U.S. government told the Sixth Circuit, asking it to reverse a lower-court decision.
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August 05, 2024
Pension Plan Testimony Barred In $2B Danish Tax Fraud Case
U.S. pension plans have proposed irrelevant expert testimony in response to allegations of their participation in a $2.1 billion Danish tax fraud scheme, a New York federal judge ruled in excluding the testimony but leaving room to try again.
Expert Analysis
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What To Know About Employee Retention Credit Disclosures
Employers that filed potentially erroneous employee retention credit claims should take certain steps to determine whether the IRS’ voluntary disclosure program is a good fit and, if so, prepare a strong application before the window closes on March 22, say attorneys at Dentons.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Unpacking FinCEN's Proposed Real Estate Transaction Rule
Phil Jelsma and Ulrick Matsunaga at Crosbie Gliner take a close look at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recently proposed rulemaking — which mandates new disclosures for professionals involved in all-cash real estate deals — and discuss best next steps for the broad range of businesses that could be affected.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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The Corporate Transparency Act Isn't Dead Yet
After an Alabama federal court's ruling last week rendering the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional, changes to the law may ultimately be required, but ongoing compliance is still the best course of action for most, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.
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How New EU Tax And Transfer Pricing Rules May Affect M&A
Companies involved in mergers and acquisitions may need to adjust fiscal due diligence procedures to ensure they consider potential far-reaching effects of newly implemented transfer pricing measures, such as newly implemented global minimum tax and European Union anti-tax avoidance directives and proposals, says Patrick Tijhuis at BDO.
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Employers, Prep For Shorter Stock Awards Settlement Cycle
Companies that provide equity compensation in the form of publicly traded stock will soon have one less day to complete such transactions under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq rules — so employers should implement expedited equity compensation stock settlement and payroll tax deposit procedures now, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Demystifying IRS' Claims Of $851B Return On Investment
The IRS' recently released analysis, estimating a $851 billion return on the government’s $80 billion investment in the agency, represents a huge increase over its 2022 estimate and that of the Congressional Budget Office and may be best viewed as a best-case scenario, says Joyce Beebe at the Baker Institute.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.
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A Proposal For Fairer, More Efficient Innocent Spouse Relief
Adding a simple election to the current regulatory framework for innocent spouse claims would benefit both taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service by alleviating the undue burdens placed on those the program was intended to help and improving agency collections in such cases, says Laurie Kazenoff at Kazenoff Tax.
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7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves
As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.
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Proposed Hydrogen Tax Credit Regs May Be Legally Flawed
While the recently proposed regulations for the new clean hydrogen production tax credit have been lauded by some in the environmental community, it is unclear whether they are sufficiently grounded in law, result from valid rulemaking processes, or accord with other administrative law principles, say Hunter Johnston and Steven Dixon at Steptoe.
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Navigating ACA Reporting Nuances As Deadlines Loom
Stephanie Lowe at Liebert Cassidy walks employers through need-to-know elements of Affordable Care Act reporting, including two quickly approaching deadlines, the updated affordability threshold, strategies for choosing an affordability safe harbor, and common coding pitfalls.