Tax

March 25, 2025
Md. Bank Disputes IRS Denial Of Captive Tax Perk

A Maryland community bank is contesting in the U.S. Tax Court the Internal Revenue Service's decision to scrap two years' worth of tax deductions tied to a reinsurance captive, disputing the agency's findings that the arrangement had no economic purpose other than tax avoidance.
March 25, 2025
NJ Says NYC Congestion Pricing Fight Ripe For Decision

The Garden State's legal battle to dismantle New York's congestion pricing program can still advance even while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fights the federal government's withdrawal of approval for the program in Manhattan federal court, New Jersey's attorneys told a federal judge.
March 25, 2025
Ex-Wife Of UK Activist Barred Over £319K Tax Debt

A U.K. political figure's former wife who owes about £319,000 ($413,000) in taxes has been disqualified from serving as a director of any business for the next seven years because of her failure to keep detailed financial records of her company, the U.K. Insolvency Service announced.
March 24, 2025
Law Firm Bookkeeper Charged With Embezzling $835K

The bookkeeper and office manager of a Hartford, Connecticut, law firm embezzled more than half a million dollars from the firm over 12 years and took more than a quarter-million in separate rental income earned by the law firm's owner, federal prosecutors announced on Monday.
March 24, 2025
Mich. Justices Partially Side With Disney In Escheat Fight

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state's audits of Disney and of IHOP's owner didn't pause the statute of limitations to require remittance of unclaimed property, but it said a lower court must determine whether the statute resets after an audit determination is issued.
March 24, 2025
IRS Abused Its Power In Levy Suit, Justices Told

A New Jersey woman should be allowed to continue challenging her tax debt in a property seizure hearing after the IRS withheld her tax refunds and dropped its levy pursuit, business and tax groups told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, saying the agency had abused its power.
March 24, 2025
Trump Asks High Court To Halt Fed. Workers' Reinstatement

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to pause a California federal court order reinstating tens of thousands of probationary federal workers who were fired from six agencies, arguing the band of nonprofit groups that obtained the order have no standing to challenge the firings.
March 24, 2025
Comparable Homes Don't Lower Mass. Property's $430K Value

A Massachusetts home will remain valued at $429,500, a state tax panel said in a decision released Monday, rejecting the owner's arguments that the home valuation grew at a higher rate than that of comparable properties.
March 24, 2025
No Evidence To Lower Home Value, Mass. Panel Says

A Massachusetts panel declined to drop a condominium unit's valuation in a decision released Monday, rejecting the owner's argument that local assessors had increased home valuations in that particular area more than for other homes in the town.
March 24, 2025
FinCEN Exempts US Businesses From Disclosure Rules

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's financial crimes unit issued interim final rules that exempt domestic businesses from contested reporting regulations, which the department had previously signaled it would narrow to include only foreign companies registered stateside.
March 24, 2025
Justices Won't Hear Peanut Truck Co.'s Excise Tax Case

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not hear a Georgia company's case arguing the IRS wrongly denied it an excise tax exemption for the special trucks it makes for peanut farming, letting stand an Eleventh Circuit ruling.
March 24, 2025
Minn. County Late To Accept Property Tax Deal, Court Says

An offer to a Minnesota county to settle a tax valuation dispute was not accepted within a reasonable period of time and is not valid, the Minnesota Tax Court said, rejecting the county's request to enforce the agreement.
March 22, 2025
Up Next At High Court: Non-Delegation & Clean Air Fights

The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday to hear arguments in a dispute that could revive a long-dormant separation of powers principle and trigger a regulatory power shift.
March 21, 2025
SEC Guidance Moves Needle In Favor Of Private Fundraising

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent guidance on how accredited investors can self-certify when participating in broadly publicized private placements simplifies legal compliance for issuers, according to attorneys, though the jury is still out on whether market participants will embrace the new framework.
March 21, 2025
Fla. Tax Preparer Sentenced To Prison For $20M Fraud

A Miami-area tax preparer was sentenced to nearly five years in prison Friday after admitting to filing thousands of individual tax returns wrongly claiming energy credits, resulting in a $20 million loss for the Internal Revenue Service, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
March 21, 2025
'Not Mistake-Proof': College Can Try To Recoup Tax Penalties

A community college can proceed with its suit seeking a refund of tax penalties for failing to file wage statements for nearly all its employees, a Michigan federal judge ruled Friday, saying the school didn't have to meet a "mistake-proof" standard to argue it should be excused from the fines.
March 21, 2025
Boutique Firm Accuses IRS Of Illegally Enforcing Payroll Tax

A consumer-protection boutique law firm accused the IRS of illegally enforcing payroll taxes while delaying the processing of pandemic-era employee retention tax credits, which the firm claimed would have helped with compliance, according to a complaint in Connecticut federal court.
March 21, 2025
Ex-UBS North America CEO Agrees To $4.9M FBAR Judgment

The former North American CEO for Swiss bank UBS on Friday agreed to a $4.9 million judgment to end claims that he failed to file timely or accurate foreign bank account reports with the Internal Revenue Service between 2003 and 2013.
March 21, 2025
Mich. Judge Dismisses $217M Dam Repair Tax Challenge

A Michigan federal judge has dismissed a pair of lawsuits alleging a $217 million special assessment to fund the reconstruction of dams destroyed in 2020 floods was unfairly levied on certain properties, finding homeowners had the opportunity to oppose the assessment and litigate their claims in state court.
March 21, 2025
US-Swiss Agreement Exempts Retirees' Dividends, IRS Says

U.S. retirement accounts, including trusts, qualified annuity plans and other schemes, are exempt from Swiss taxes on dividends from Swiss companies in which they don't own a controlling interest, according to a U.S.-Switzerland competent authority agreement released Friday by the IRS.
March 21, 2025
Md. Nonprofit's Property Used As Home Isn't Exempt

A Maryland property owned by a nonprofit isn't exempt from property tax, because it's used as the founder's home and not mainly for charitable purposes, the state tax court affirmed.
March 21, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Cravath, Paul Weiss, Cooley

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Google acquires Wiz, QXO Inc. acquires Beacon Roofing Supply, and the Boston Celtics are bought by a group led by private equity firm co-founder William Chisholm.
March 21, 2025
Informal Money Transfers Launder £2B Annually, HMRC Warns

Criminals in the U.K. are laundering an estimated £2 billion (£2.6 billion) every year via informal money transfer services, HM Revenue and Customs has warned.
March 21, 2025
High Court Says Misleading Statements To FDIC Not Criminal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned a Seventh Circuit ruling that upheld the conviction of a former Chicago alderman for making false statements about loans from a defunct bank, clarifying that the federal law in question criminalizes false statements but not those that are merely misleading.
March 21, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs Actavis' $12M Patent Suit Cost Deduction

Drugmaker Actavis can take a $12 million tax deduction for money it spent fending off lawsuits while securing approval to sell generic birth control and other drugs, the Federal Circuit ruled Friday, affirming the U.S. Court of Federal Claims' decision that the costs were deductible as ordinary business expenses.

Expert Analysis

National Bank Act Rulings Facilitate More Preemption Analysis

Two recent National Bank Act preemption decisions from an Illinois federal court and the Ninth Circuit provide the first applications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s May ruling in Cantero v. Bank of America, opening the potential for several circuit courts to address the issue this year, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.
Series

Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer

My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.
Opinion

Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay

Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.
Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example

Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Perspectives

Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines

KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.
Trump's Energy Plans: Climate, Data Centers, LNG And More

With a host of executive orders addressing climate and emissions policies, expanded energy development, offshore and onshore projects, liquefied natural gas and more, the second Trump administration has already given energy companies much to consider, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex

Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.
Unpacking The Legal Foundation Of Trump's New Trade War

President Donald Trump's recent executive orders and proclamations regarding emergencies at the U.S. border are based on statutory powers enabling a president to address extraordinary external threats — and could be used to fend off legal challenges to the tariffs levied on Mexican and Canadian goods, says Chris Zona at Mandelbaum Barrett.
Trump's Energy Plans: Funding, Permits And Nuclear Power

In the wake of President Donald Trump's flurry of first-day executive orders focusing on the energy sector, attorneys at Gibson Dunn analyze what this presidency will mean for energy-related grants and loans, changes to permitting processes and developments in nuclear power.
When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law

In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
What Compensation Committees Must Keep In Mind In 2025

New disclosure obligations, an evolving discussion on the analysis of executive perks and updated proxy adviser policies — on top of a new presidential administration — are all important things compensation committees must pay close attention to in 2025, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
Anticipating Direction Of Cosmetics Regulation Under Trump

It is unclear how cosmetics regulation reform from the last few years will fare under President Donald Trump, but the new administration's emphasis on deregulation and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s views on product safety provide some insight, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
IRS Basis-Shifting Rule Poses Notable Reporting Obligations

While the IRS’ recently finalized rule requiring partnerships to report certain related-party basis adjustment transactions is narrower than originally proposed, taxpayers and their advisers will still need to comb through myriad transactions to comply, say attorneys at Debevoise.
Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering

Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.
Series

Documentary Filmmaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Becoming a documentary filmmaker has allowed me to merge my legal expertise with my passion for storytelling, and has helped me to hone negotiation, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are important to both endeavors, says Robert Darwell at Sheppard Mullin.