Federal

  • February 27, 2025

    Dems Object To Treasury Pick, Want Probe Into DOGE Access

    Senate Finance Committee Democrats objected Thursday to holding a hearing on President Donald Trump's pick for deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury unless they can investigate access to the department's systems by the Department of Government Efficiency.

  • February 27, 2025

    Family Denies Role In $81M Son-Of-Boss Tax Scheme

    The government failed to prove that former shareholders of a family holding company knew the buyer of their company stock was shorting the IRS nearly $81 million and that they should be on the hook for the taxes, family members told a New York federal court Thursday.

  • February 27, 2025

    IRS To Begin Posting Tax Documents In Online Accounts

    Individual online account holders at the IRS will begin seeing federal information from their W-2 Wage and Tax Statement posted there, the agency announced Thursday, saying it plans to add more tax documents in the coming months.

  • February 27, 2025

    Judge Urges $15.5M Tax Judgment Against Ex-NFL Champ

    A federal magistrate judge recommended a default judgment against four-time Super Bowl champion Bill Romanowski and his wife for $15.5 million in taxes, saying in a report Thursday that the couple failed to respond to the underlying government complaint against them.

  • February 28, 2025

    CORRECTED: TCJA Extensions Would Offset Tax Dip By $710B, Report Says

    The economic growth spurred by making set-to-expire provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent is estimated to generate taxes to offset about $710 billion of the expected $4.5 trillion in lost tax revenue between 2025 and 2034, a think tank said in a report. Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the projected impact of extending the provisions. The error has been corrected.

  • February 27, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revisit Tomato Paste Cos.' Deduction Claims

    The Ninth Circuit won't reconsider its ruling rejecting tax deductions claimed by a pair of tomato paste producers for facility upgrades, a split panel decided Thursday.

  • February 27, 2025

    EU Prepared To Retaliate Against US Over Tariffs, Officials Say

    European Union officials said Thursday that the bloc is prepared to retaliate against the U.S. if President Donald Trump follows through with tariffs on over $600 billion of goods, a situation that two law professors said risks becoming a trade war more than past disputes.

  • February 27, 2025

    Estate's $3M To Stepkids Deducted As Biz Deal, 11th Circ. Told

    The estate of a deceased corporate attorney told the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday that the U.S. government wrongly taxed $3 million claimed by his stepchildren, arguing that the amount was properly deducted as a contracted business transaction under the Internal Revenue Code.

  • February 27, 2025

    Goldstein Urges Judge To Lift Device Monitoring Requirement

    U.S. Supreme Court advocate and SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein asked a Maryland federal judge Thursday to nix a condition of his pretrial release that requires him to have monitoring equipment installed on his electronic devices.

  • February 27, 2025

    KPMG Secures Arizona Approval To Operate Law Firm

    Arizona's supreme court on Thursday approved an alternative business structure license to allow accounting giant KPMG to run its own law firm in the U.S.

  • February 27, 2025

    Phishing Tax Scams Top IRS 'Dirty Dozen' List

    Taxpayers should watch out for email phishing scams, bad social media advice and people offering help to set up online accounts, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday in its "Dirty Dozen" list of tax scams for 2025.

  • February 27, 2025

    Biz Owner Not Owed For Tax Refund Wait, 8th Circ. Told

    A business owner who claimed the federal government owes him about $100,000 to make up for his lost business opportunities while he continued to wait for a claimed $100,000 tax refund is not entitled to the damages or the refund, the U.S. government told the Eighth Circuit.

  • February 26, 2025

    Ill. Tax Pro Gets 5½ Years For $1.1M IRS Payment Scheme

    A suburban Chicago tax professional who admitted he made $1.1 million by lying to clients about paying their tax liabilities and is already serving six years for carrying out a separate investment scheme must serve an additional 5½ years in prison for his conduct, an Illinois federal judge said Wednesday.

  • February 26, 2025

    Trump Orders Fed Agencies To Plan For Large Layoffs

    The White House is telling federal agencies to submit plans for "large-scale" layoffs by mid-March, accusing them of siphoning funding for "unproductive and unnecessary programs" and "not producing results for the American public."

  • February 26, 2025

    Police Supply Store, Others Ask 5th Circ. To Keep CTA Paused

    A Texas police supply store joined with Mississippi libertarians and several other parties asking the Fifth Circuit to keep the Corporate Transparency Act on hold, saying ending the stoppage of that law could force 32 million business entities to file beneficial ownership reports.

  • February 26, 2025

    IRS Spinoff Safe Harbors Not Seen As All-Purpose Reprieve

    Safe harbors proposed by the IRS would allow certain corporate spinoffs to get statutory tax-free treatment, but the bright-line requirements to qualify for these provisions reflect the tension between a blanket approach and the unique complexities of each transaction.

  • February 26, 2025

    House Panel Advances Bill To Repeal IRS DeFi Broker Rule

    House Ways and Means Committee Republicans advanced legislation that would repeal a final U.S. Treasury Department rule implementing additional reporting requirements for decentralized finance brokers.

  • February 26, 2025

    Coke's $2.7B Tax Bill Due To 'Bait And Switch,' 11th Circ. Told

    Coca-Cola urged the Eleventh Circuit to reverse a U.S. Tax Court decision putting the beverage giant on the hook for $2.7 billion in taxes, arguing the ruling excused the IRS' "blatant bait and switch" regarding how it allocates income from foreign affiliates.

  • February 26, 2025

    Tax Overhaul Designer Named Top Tax Adviser To Treasury

    An attorney who worked for Exxon Mobil and helped design the 2017 tax overhaul in President Donald Trump's first term has been appointed to serve as a top tax adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Treasury announced Wednesday.

  • February 25, 2025

    DC Judge Blocks Trump's Federal Funding Freeze

    A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from implementing a federal spending freeze while a group of nonprofits challenge the freeze, calling the measure "ill-conceived from the beginning."

  • February 25, 2025

    House Passes Budget Blueprint Allowing $4.5T In Tax Cuts

    The House of Representatives approved a budget blueprint Tuesday that would allow for the passage of up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, paving the way to renew the expiring provisions of President Donald Trump's signature 2017 tax overhaul.

  • February 25, 2025

    IRS Top Operating Officer To Serve As Acting Commissioner

    The Internal Revenue Service's chief operating officer will become its acting commissioner, replacing current acting commissioner Douglas O'Donnell, who took on the role just last month, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday.

  • February 25, 2025

    Tax Court Reaffirms Suzanne Somers' Estate Owes $2.7M

    The U.S. Tax Court on Tuesday reaffirmed roughly $2.7 million in tax liabilities against television producer Alan Hamel and the estate of his wife, actor Suzanne Somers, finding a Treasury regulation it had relied on in its initial decision was sound.

  • February 25, 2025

    Texas Tax Pros Criticize Proposal To Advise IRS Disclosures

    Texas accountants objected to a proposed federal regulation that would require them to advise clients who have broken tax laws to make disclosures to the IRS, saying in a letter to the agency released Tuesday that it would likely create a conflict when clients have criminal exposure.

  • February 25, 2025

    Manufacturers Ask To Suspend Biden-Era Reporting Rules

    Tax regulations governing partnerships and corporations passed by the outgoing Biden administration should be suspended — or outright retracted — because they conflict with the Trump administration's priorities, the National Association of Manufacturers said in a letter to the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department released Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • Hydrogen Regs Will Provide More Certainty — If They Survive

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    Newly finalized regulations implementing the Section 45V clean hydrogen tax credit allow producers more flexibility, and should therefore help put the industry on more solid footing — but the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress will have multiple options for overturning or altering the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • 5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2025 And Beyond

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    In the year to come, e-discovery will be shaped by new and emerging trends, from the adoption of artificial intelligence provisions in protective orders, to the proliferation of emojis as a source of evidence in contemporary litigation, say attorneys at Littler.

  • What's Ahead As Transparency Act Comes To A Crossroads

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    Synthesizing the contrasting federal district and appellate court rulings on the Corporate Transparency Act’s validity reveals several main areas of debate that will likely remain at issue as challenges to the law continue winding through the courts, say attorneys at Farella Braun.

  • Final Hydrogen Tax Credit Regs Add Flexibility For Producers

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    The recently released final regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act's clean hydrogen production tax credit offer taxpayers greater flexibility, reducing risk and creating more certainty for investments in the industry, thus diminishing — but not eliminating — the risk of legal challenges to the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • 5 Evolving Concerns For Family Offices In 2025

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    Complex regulatory changes and emerging operational risks will force family offices to stay on their toes in 2025, with timely action particularly necessary to address several tax and reporting developments that may affect their investments and business operations, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • 7 Ways 2nd Trump Administration May Affect Partner Hiring

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    President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will likely have a number of downstream effects on partner hiring in the legal industry, from accelerated hiring timelines to increased vetting of prospective employees, say recruiters at Macrae.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection

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    Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • A Look At PCAOB's Record-Breaking Enforcement In 2024

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    The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in 2024 brought more enforcement actions against auditors and imposed increasingly higher monetary penalties, showing that it was not afraid to exercise its power to fine and reprimand firms, a trend that will likely continue in 2025, say attorneys at Briglia Hundley.

  • Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

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    Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.

  • An Associate's Guide To Career Development In 2025

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    As the new year begins, associates at all levels should consider establishing career metrics, fostering key relationships and employing other specific strategies to help move through the complexities of the legal profession with confidence and emerge as trailblazers, say EJ Stern and Amanda George at Fractional Law Firm.

  • Fixing Up Cars Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    From problem-solving to patience and adaptability to organization, the skills developed working under the hood of a car directly translate to being a more effective lawyer, says Christopher Mdeway at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • A New Tax On Employers Could Help Curb Illegal Immigration

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    To better enforce the law against hiring immigrants unauthorized to work in the U.S., Congress should enact a punitive excise tax on compensation paid to such immigrants and amend the False Claims Act to allow qui tam actions against employers for failure to pay such tax, says Ajay Gupta at Moore Tax Law Group.

  • Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team

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    In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.

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