Federal
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July 09, 2024
House Panel OKs Tax Breaks For More Education Expenses
The House Ways and Means Committee sent several education-related tax bills to the full House of Representatives on Tuesday, including legislation that would make additional elementary and secondary school expenses eligible for tax-advantaged education savings accounts.
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July 09, 2024
Dems Request Special Counsel To Probe Justice Thomas Gifts
Two Democratic senators have asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' failure to disclose various gifts received during his tenure on the high court amounts to chargeable ethics violations or tax crimes.
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July 09, 2024
IRS Errors Foul $51M Levy, Calif. Man's Estate Tells Tax Court
The Internal Revenue Service made a slew of errors in determining a California man's estate faces a $46.2 million estate tax deficiency and a $4.6 million penalty, the estate's executor told the U.S. Tax Court.
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July 09, 2024
Veriwave Telco Faces FCC Action Over 'Tax Relief' Robocalls
The Federal Communications Commission is moving to block robocalls about purported "tax relief" programs from a Delaware-based telecommunications company, announcing in an order Monday that Veriwave Telco had another 14 days to demonstrate compliance with the agency's rules or risk having downstream providers cut its traffic.
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July 09, 2024
Senate Tax Panel To Consider 3 Tax Court Nominees
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday to consider three U.S. Tax Court judge nominees, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the panel's chairman, said in a statement Tuesday.
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July 09, 2024
5 Firms Steer $513M Ryan-Altus Cross-Border Tax Deal
Dallas-based tax services and software provider Ryan said Tuesday it has inked a deal to acquire the property tax business of Altus Group Ltd. for CA$700 million ($513.4 million), enlisting three firms to assist on a deal that will expand its footprint in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
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July 09, 2024
Medical Office Manager Gets 5 Years For Tax, Mail Fraud
The former office manager of an Illinois medical practice was sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution — most of it to his former employer — after admitting to filing a false tax return and stealing from the practice.
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July 09, 2024
Companies Deliberate Pillar 2 Prep After OECD Signals Relief
Multinational corporations facing the Pillar Two global minimum tax in various jurisdictions are weighing comments from OECD officials that hint at more relief as they decide whether to prepare to comply with the rules now or gamble on the prospects of permanent safe harbors.
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July 08, 2024
IRS Details Steps To Take For Scam-Credit Letter Recipients
The Internal Revenue Service published a fact sheet Monday to help taxpayers respond to letters from the agency identifying tax returns as requiring authentication after the agency said that inaccurate advice from social media and a series of scams led to an increase in questionable refund claims.
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July 08, 2024
Continued Worker Credit Freeze Could Push Cos. To Court
More employers tired of waiting for the Internal Revenue Service to process their employee retention credit refund claims could decide to go to court to force the government to review their submissions following the IRS announcing that a moratorium on processing new claims would remain in place.
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July 08, 2024
Ways And Means To Vote On Section 529 Tax Bills
The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on several education-related tax bills, including legislation that would make additional elementary and secondary school expenses eligible for tax-advantaged education savings accounts.
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July 08, 2024
Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin
The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin reported recently issued guidance on exceptions to the 10% additional tax for people who make permissible early retirement account withdrawals for emergency personal expenses and for victims of domestic abuse.
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July 08, 2024
IRS Failed To Analyze Storage Costs, TIGTA Says
The IRS didn't negotiate with the federal agency that stores its paper tax records, instead agreeing to pay a new monthly rate of $2.8 million without doing the required cost analysis, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report released Monday.
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July 08, 2024
Top International Tax Cases Of 2024: Midyear Report
With a U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming a key 2017 tax provision on repatriation, millions of dollars in FBAR penalties upheld and a French ruling confirming the U.S. government's access to foreign bank accounts, the IRS stacked up important court victories on international enforcement in the first half of 2024. Here, Law360 reviews those and other significant rulings from the past six months.
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July 08, 2024
Atty Drops FOIA Suit Against IRS Over Partnership Audits
An Ohio attorney agreed to drop a public records suit against the Internal Revenue Service that had sought documents related to partnership audits after the agency released thousands of records he had requested, according to a D.C. federal court filing.
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July 08, 2024
IRS Must Produce Audit Records, Waste Co. Says
Garbage-hauling giant Waste Management Inc. asked a D.C. federal court to force the IRS to produce its tax files on the company for 2017, including audit records, saying the agency has been dragging its feet in violation of the Freedom of Information Act.
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July 08, 2024
Feds Seize $63M LA Estate Tied To Armenian Bribe Probe
The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday that it will seize a $63 million Los Angeles estate that it claims was bought with bribe payments for the family of a former Armenian government official.
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July 05, 2024
How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court
Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
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July 05, 2024
Breaking Down The Vote: The High Court Term In Review
The U.S. Supreme Court's lethargic pace of decision-making this term left the justices to issue a slew of highly anticipated and controversial rulings during the term's final week — rulings that put the court's ideological divisions on vivid display. Here, Law360 takes a data dive into the numbers behind this court term.
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July 05, 2024
High Court Flexes Muscle To Limit Administrative State
The U.S. Supreme Court's dismantling of a 40-year-old judicial deference doctrine, coupled with rulings stripping federal agencies of certain enforcement powers and exposing them to additional litigation, has established the October 2023 term as likely the most consequential in administrative law history.
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July 05, 2024
The Sharpest Dissents From The Supreme Court Term
The U.S. Supreme Court's session ended with a series of blockbuster cases that granted the president broad immunity, changed federal gun policy and kneecapped administrative agencies. And many of the biggest decisions fell along partisan lines.
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July 05, 2024
5 Moments That Shaped The Supreme Court's Jan. 6 Decision
When the high court limited the scope of a federal obstruction statute used to charge hundreds of rioters who stormed the Capitol, the justices did not vote along ideological lines. In a year marked by 6-3 splits, what accounts for the departure? Here are some moments from oral arguments that may have swayed the justices.
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July 05, 2024
The Funniest Moments Of The Supreme Court's Term
In a U.S. Supreme Court term teeming with serious showdowns, the august air at oral arguments filled with laughter after an attorney mentioned her plastic surgeon and a justice seemed to diss his colleagues, to cite just two of the term's mirthful moments. Here, we look at the funniest moments of the term.
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July 05, 2024
H&R Block Users Must Arbitrate Meta Privacy Claims
Two H&R Block customers must arbitrate their claims that the company shared their private data with Meta Platforms Inc. and Google, a Pennsylvania federal court ruled, saying they agreed to arbitrate any disputes under the tax services provider's terms of agreement.
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July 05, 2024
The Firms That Won Big At The Supreme Court
This U.S. Supreme Court term featured high-stakes oral arguments on issues including gerrymandering, abortion and federal agency authority, and a hot bench ever more willing to engage in a lengthy back-and-forth with advocates. Here's a look at the law firms that argued the most cases and how they fared.
Expert Analysis
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Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World
As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.
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General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI
With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.
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Liability Exposure For Unpaid Payroll Taxes May Surprise You
The Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Richard W. York v. U.S. offers important lessons for business owners and others who may be responsible for a company's checkbook about how someone else's failure to submit payroll taxes can result in their personal liability, says Douglas Charnas at McGlinchey Stafford.
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Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information
As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.
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Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD
Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.
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Unlocking Value In Carve-Out M&A Transactions
Some of the largest mergers and acquisitions in 2023 were carve-out transactions, and despite their unique intricacies and challenges, these transactions offer both buyers and sellers the opportunity to generate outsized returns in an otherwise vigorously competitive landscape, when carefully planned and diligently executed, say Kevin Crews and Rami Totari at Kirkland.
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Attorneys, Law Schools Must Adapt To New Era Of Evidence
Technological advancements mean more direct evidence is being created than ever before, and attorneys as well as law schools must modify their methods to account for new challenges in how this evidence is collected and used to try cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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1st Tax Easement Convictions Will Likely Embolden DOJ, IRS
After recent convictions in the first criminal tax fraud trial over allegedly abusive syndicated conservation easements, the IRS and U.S. Department of Justice will likely pursue other promoters for similar alleged conspiracies — though one acquittal may help attorneys better evaluate their clients' exposure, say Bill Curtis and Lauren DeSantis-Then at Polsinelli.
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Tips For Litigating Against Pro Se Parties In Complex Disputes
Litigating against self-represented parties in complex cases can pose unique challenges for attorneys, but for the most part, it requires the same skills that are useful in other cases — from documenting everything to understanding one’s ethical duties, says Bryan Ketroser at Alto Litigation.
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Anticipating Intensified Partnership Enforcement From IRS
The Internal Revenue Service's decadeslong difficulties with partnership audits led to the recent announcement of a clear, well-funded, focused initiative, and businesses operating in the partnership form will feel the impact, with definite changes ahead, says Sharon Katz-Pearlman at Greenberg Traurig.
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Pro Bono Work Is Powerful Self-Help For Attorneys
Oct. 22-28 is Pro Bono Week, serving as a useful reminder that offering free legal help to the public can help attorneys expand their legal toolbox, forge community relationships and create human connections, despite the challenges of this kind of work, says Orlando Lopez at Culhane Meadows.
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The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Espinosa On 'Lincoln Lawyer'
The murder trials in Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” illustrate the stark contrast between the ethical high ground that fosters and maintains the criminal justice system's integrity, and the ethical abyss that can undermine it, with an important reminder for all legal practitioners, say Judge Adam Espinosa and Andrew Howard at the Colorado 2nd Judicial District Court.
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Newman Suspension Shows Need For Judicial Reform
The recent suspension of U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman following her alleged refusal to participate in a disability inquiry reveals the need for judicial misconduct reforms to ensure that judges step down when they can no longer serve effectively, says Aliza Shatzman at The Legal Accountability Project.