Federal
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June 20, 2024
Tax Court Says Man Can't Avoid Early Withdrawal Penalty
The Internal Revenue Service correctly determined that a Delaware man's early withdrawal of $137,000 from his retirement accounts in order to buy his brother's share of their dead mother's property did not qualify for the first-time homebuyer's exemption, the U.S. Tax Court said Thursday.
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June 20, 2024
Tomato Cos. Can't Take Immediate Deductions, 9th Circ. Told
Two companies that supply 40% of the U.S.' tomato paste and diced tomatoes should not be allowed to deduct costs of restoring their production facilities before the actual restoration occurs, the IRS told the Ninth Circuit on Thursday in urging it to uphold a U.S. Tax Court ruling.
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June 20, 2024
Casinos Must Fight Hotel Tax In State Court, 5th Circ. Says
Owners of two Louisiana casinos with attached hotels must challenge Baton Rouge in state court, rather than federal court, over taxes the city says they owe on free hotel stays they gave patrons, the Fifth Circuit ruled, saying the state is entitled to deference.
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June 20, 2024
Housing, Child Care Top Dem. Senators' 2025 Tax Deal Goals
Senate Democrats plan to prioritize tax policies that will make child care and housing more affordable in the midst of the debate over the extension of the 2017 tax law's expiring provisions in 2025, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden told reporters Thursday.
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June 20, 2024
Dickinson Wright Brings On McDermott, Bell Nunnally Attys
Dickinson Wright PLLC added a pair of new members who include a commercial finance and real estate attorney from Bell Nunnally & Martin LLP based in Austin, Texas, and a tax and incentives attorney from McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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June 20, 2024
Tax Court Errs In Deeming Loans As Equity, 11th Circ. Told
A Florida business owner deserves tax deductions on loans his companies made to residential development projects that became worthless during the Great Recession, he told the Eleventh Circuit in a bid to reverse a Tax Court decision that classified the loans as equity.
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June 20, 2024
Tax Preparer With $38M In Refunds Cops To S-Corp. Scam
The owner of a tax preparation business that secured $38 million in federal refunds for customers pled guilty to helping prepare false returns and admitted he required clients to establish empty corporations to lower their tax bills illegally, according to his plea agreement in a California federal court.
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June 20, 2024
Repatriation Tax Doesn't Violate Constitution, Justices Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 2017 federal tax overhaul's mandatory repatriation levy on Thursday, finding the measure applies to the earnings of foreign corporations with U.S. shareholders and therefore does not raise constitutional questions about taxing unrealized income.
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June 18, 2024
Ore. To Adopt IRS' Free E-File Program For 2025 Season
Oregon will participate in the Internal Revenue Service's Direct File free online tax filing program when it returns for the 2025 filing season, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS announced Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
Corporate Rate Revenue To Decrease After 2025, CBO Says
Corporate income tax receipts will steadily decrease after 2025 in relation to gross domestic product due to expiration of many of the 2017 tax law's provisions, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report released Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
Tax Court Admonishes CPA For 'Unbecoming' Tax Positions
A U.S. Tax Court judge warned a certified public accountant who challenged his $23,000 tax bill that his groundless arguments could cost him a fine, saying in an opinion Tuesday that his tax positions "are unbecoming of a CPA."
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June 18, 2024
Mere Mention Of Setbacks Can't Nix Penalties, Tax Court Says
A Washington man who said he couldn't pay his taxes because he struggled to recover from financial setbacks during the pandemic didn't provide proof of his hardships, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday in upholding the government's collection of penalties against him.
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June 18, 2024
IRS Drops Two Research Credit Refund Claim Requirements
Taxpayers submitting refund claims that include the research credit no longer need to furnish the names of people who conducted each research project or the information each person tried to find with claims postmarked as of Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service announced.
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June 18, 2024
Former Tax Atty Hid Pension's $22.6M, Tax Court Says
A former attorney who promoted himself as an expert in employee stock ownership plans failed to report nearly $22.6 million in income related to his acquisition of a furniture company's overfunded pension plan, the U.S. Tax Court ruled.
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June 18, 2024
Life Insurance Fraudster Deserves Tax Penalties, 7th Circ. Told
The IRS urged the Seventh Circuit to maintain nearly $400,000 in fraud penalties assessed against an Illinois man who pled guilty to falsifying his tax returns as part of a scheme to poison his wife and collect on a $20 million life insurance policy.
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June 18, 2024
IRS Guidance Doesn't Perceive Spinoff Abuse, Official Says
Recent IRS guidance limiting the corporate spinoffs that revenue officials will approve as tax-free ahead of time was designed to reflect the drafters' current views, rather than suggest perceived abuse of these transactions, a U.S. Treasury Department official said Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
AbbVie Says IRS Can't Treat $1.6B Break Fee As Capital Loss
The Internal Revenue Service cannot reclassify as a capital loss a $1.6 billion payment AbbVie made to an Irish biotechnology company after their failed merger and thereby raise the pharmaceutical giant's tax bill by $572 million, the company's attorneys told the U.S. Tax Court.
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June 18, 2024
Applicable Federal Interest Rates To Fall In July
Applicable federal rates for income tax purposes will decrease in July, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday, reporting the first month-to-month drop since February.
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June 18, 2024
Treasury Finalizes Labor Rules For Bonus Energy Tax Credits
The U.S. Treasury Department released final labor rules Tuesday for clean energy projects seeking to significantly boost the value of their tax credits, emphasizing due diligence by developers and announcing that more IRS resources will go toward enforcement of the rules.
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June 17, 2024
$2.1B Danish Tax Fraud Defendant Pushes For Separate Trials
An attorney facing trial alongside his clients on allegations of filing $2.1 billion in fraudulent tax refund claims in Denmark urged a New York federal court to hear his case separately, saying disparate legal arguments could confuse a jury if only one trial is held.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Asks Court To Leave Alone Worker Retention Credit Pause
An Arizona federal court should reject a tax advisory firm's request to lift the IRS' moratorium on processing claims for the pandemic-era employee retention credit, the agency argued, saying the agency should be allowed to continue to run the program as it sees fit.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Correctly Assessed Md. Man's Deficiency, Tax Court Says
There were no genuine disputes of facts with the Internal Revenue Service's determination that a Maryland man had failed to file a return reporting nearly $255,000 in gross income, leading to a tax deficiency of more than $61,000, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Monday.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Issues Corp. Bond Monthly Yield Curve Guidance
The Internal Revenue Service published guidance Monday on the corporate bond monthly yield curve used in calculations for defined benefit plans as well as corresponding segment rates and other related provisions.
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June 17, 2024
Treasury Says Partnership Crackdown Could Raise Over $50B
A regulatory project to stop large, complex partnerships from using murky business structures to boost deductions and dodge taxes, an effort launched Monday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS, could ultimately raise over $50 billion in a decade, Treasury said.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Didn't Fully Solve All IT Issues, TIGTA Says
A review of planned corrective actions reported as closed by the Internal Revenue Service's information technology organization found one not fully implemented while another was not fully effective, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Monday.
Expert Analysis
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Atty-Client Privilege Arguments Give Justices A Moving Target
Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case regarding the scope of the attorney-client privilege appeared to raise more questions about multipurpose counsel communications than they answered, as the parties presented shifting iterations of a predictable, easily applied test for evaluating the communications' purpose, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.
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Industry Takeaways From IRS Guidance On EV Tax Credits
The IRS and U.S. Department of the Treasury’s recently issued documents on tax credit eligibility for clean vehicle purchases showcases three important points for the electric vehicle industry, including emphasis on the importance of in-service dates, guidance on how leased vehicles could be evaluated, and insight into manufacturing requirements, says Levi McAllister at Morgan Lewis.
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States Must Align Distribution Age Rules With Secure 2.0
To prevent unintended escheatment of retirement benefits, states will need to undertake legislative efforts to amend unclaimed property standards that conflict with the Secure 2.0 Act's required minimum distribution age increases, says Michael Giovannini at Alston & Bird.
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The IRS' APA Rulemaking Journey: There And Back Again
Attorneys at Dentons examine recent challenges in which taxpayers successfully argued Internal Revenue Service rulemaking was invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act, how tax exceptionalism and U.S. Supreme Court regulatory deference prompted such challenges, and similar challenges the agency will likely face following this line of cases.
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Tax Court Ruling Should Allay Post-Boechler Concerns
An unusually long U.S. Tax Court ruling in Hallmark Research Collective v. Commissioner, confirming that deficiency deadlines are jurisdictional, should reassure practitioners concerned about the statutory time limit implications of last year's U.S. Supreme Court Boechler v. Commissioner ruling and reaffirm the vital role of the Tax Court itself, says James Creech at Baker Tilly.
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Unpacking The Interim Guidance On New Stock Buyback Tax
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service's recent notice on applying the newly effective excise tax on stock repurchases provides much-needed clarity on the tax's scope, which is much broader than anticipated given its underlying policy rationale, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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The Cryptocurrency Law And Policy Outlook For 2023
The digital asset sector saw significant losses in 2022, amid a continuing lack of guidance about how such assets should be taxed, but new government regulation, growing participation by traditional financial players and other factors should spur recovery in the coming year, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.
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IRS Will Use New Resources To Increase Scrutiny In 2023
The new year promises to be a busy one for the Internal Revenue Service, which is poised to apply the boost in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster and expand its enforcement capability, and there are four areas to watch, say attorneys at Skadden.
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How Cos. Can Prep For Alcohol Beverage Excise Tax Changes
The Craft Beverage Modernization Act will soon undergo a transition in administration to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, and importers or producers should address any issues that may arise under the act, such as foreign producers not being familiar with the mechanics of the TTB, say Louis Terminello and Bradley Berkman at Greenspoon Marder.
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New R&E Capitalization A Costly Change For Companies
Unless modified by legislation in the coming weeks, radical new capitalization rules for research and experimentation costs mean companies should brace for the loss of a major tax break starting with their 2022 tax returns, says Nancy Dollar at Hanson Bridgett.
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Congress Is Right To Advance Comprehensive Retirement Bill
As 2022 comes to a close, Congress' move to include the Secure 2.0 Act, a comprehensive retirement bill, in its omnibus spending package will bring retirees and those nearing retirement more peace of mind regarding their 401(k)s, IRAs and pensions, while reducing red tape for employers, says Andy Banducci at the ERISA Industry Committee.
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10 Pre-Deal Considerations In Cross-Border M&A Transactions
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Sergio Galvis and Benjamin Kent at Sullivan & Cromwell discuss steps that can be taken to preemptively address important issues that acquirers of foreign businesses encounter in cross-border M&A transactions, including tax planning and political risk.
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Clean Hydrogen Developers Should Track Incentives, Risks
Clean hydrogen project developers and investors should be aware of new funding opportunities from the U.S. Department of Energy and tax benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act, but must also guard against risks associated with new and evolving technologies, say Pamela Wu and Kirstin Gibbs at Morgan Lewis.