Federal

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • August 05, 2024

    Dems Unearth Another Thomas Trip Paid For By Harlan Crow

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took a previously undisclosed trip between Hawaii and New Zealand on a billionaire Republican donor's private jet in 2010, lawmakers revealed in a letter Monday that offered the donor a "final opportunity" to explain how that trip and others don't constitute a tax fraud scheme.

  • August 05, 2024

    Chamber Asking 4th Circ. To Revive Md. Digital Ad Tax Fight

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups are seeking Fourth Circuit review of a federal district court decision throwing out their First Amendment complaint against Maryland's digital advertising tax, the groups told the lower court.

  • August 05, 2024

    3 Changes To IRS Direct File On Stakeholders' Wish Lists

    Organizations that partnered with the IRS or states on the free online tax filing system known as Direct File are seeking improvements in the program's second year, including allowing taxpayers to transfer more data from federal returns to state returns and enhancements for Spanish speakers. Here, Law360 looks at three changes sought by stakeholders.

  • August 05, 2024

    IRS Announces 2024 Senior Executive Review Board Members

    The Internal Revenue Service on Monday named the 99 employees who will make up the standing roster of its fiscal year 2024 Senior Executive Service Performance Review Boards.

Expert Analysis

  • Navigating ACA Reporting Nuances As Deadlines Loom

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    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.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Why Biz Groups Disagree On Ending Chevron Deference

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    Two amicus briefs filed in advance of last month's U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo highlight contrasting views on whether the doctrine of Chevron deference promotes or undermines the stable regulatory environment that businesses require, say Wyatt Kendall and Sydney Brogden at Morris Manning.

  • US-Chile Tax Treaty May Encourage Cross-Border Investment

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    Provisions in the recently effective U.S.-Chile bilateral income tax treaty should encourage business between the two countries, as they reduce U.S. withholding tax on investment income for Chilean taxpayers, exempt certain U.S. taxpayers from Chilean capital gains tax, and clarify U.S. foreign tax credit rules, say attorneys at Kramer Levin.

  • A Look Ahead For The Electric Vehicle Charging Industry

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    This will likely be an eventful year for the electric vehicle market as government efforts to accelerate their adoption inevitably clash with backlash from supporters of the petroleum industry, say Rue Phillips at SkillFusion and Enid Joffe at Green Paradigm Consulting.

  • A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise

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    After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.

  • SG's Office Is Case Study To Help Close Legal Gender Gap

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    As women continue to be underrepresented in the upper echelons of the legal profession, law firms could learn from the example set by the Office of the Solicitor General, where culture and workplace policies have helped foster greater gender equality, say attorneys at Ocean Tomo.

  • Planning A Defense As IRS Kicks Off Sports Losses Campaign

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    Sports team owners and partnerships face potential examination under the Internal Revenue Service’s recently announced sports industry losses campaign, and should be preparing to explain what drove their reported losses and assembling documentation to support their tax return positions and accounting methods, say Sheri Dillon and Jennifer Breen at Morgan Lewis.

  • What New Calif. Strike Force Means For White Collar Crimes

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    The recently announced Central District of California strike force targeting complex corporate and securities fraud — following the Northern District of California's model — combines experienced prosecutorial leadership and partnerships with federal agencies like the IRS and FBI, and could result in an uptick in the number of cases and speed of proceedings, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout

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    While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift

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    As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.

  • As Promised, IRS Is Coming For Crypto Tax Evaders

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    The IRS is fulfilling its promise to crack down on those who have neglected to pay taxes on cryptocurrency earnings, as demonstrated by recently imposed prison sentences, enforcement initiatives and meetings with international counterparts — suggesting a few key takeaways for taxpayer compliance, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • 5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money

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    As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.

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