Federal
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July 02, 2024
Top Federal Tax Cases Of 2024: Midyear Report
In the first half of the year, the U.S. Supreme Court torpedoed the Chevron doctrine of judicial deference to federal agencies and affirmed the denial of a tax refund to a business owner's estate related to a life insurance payout, while the U.S. Tax Court reversed itself regarding a rule for conservation easements. Here, Law360 reviews federal court decisions from the past six months that tax attorneys should know.
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July 01, 2024
High Court's 1-2 Punch Sets Up Long-Standing Regs For KO
By ending its term with a stinging combination against federal agencies, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative bloc left behind a bruised bureaucracy and a regulatory system that's now vulnerable to a barrage of incoming attacks.
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July 01, 2024
IRS Faces Rulemaking Pressure Following Chevron's Demise
The Internal Revenue Service will likely face more pressure to develop tax regulations that are more firmly grounded in the law and tailored to ensure certainty for individuals, businesses and other organizations after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn the decades-old Chevron doctrine.
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July 01, 2024
Feds Push To Keep IRS Agents Out Of Hunter Biden Tax Case
Two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers who Hunter Biden said wrongfully disclosed his confidential tax information should not be allowed to intervene in his suit against the U.S. government, the government told a D.C. federal court Monday.
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July 01, 2024
Pa. Man Gets 12 Years For $2M COVID-19 Funds Fraud
A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to approximately 12 years in prison following his convictions for bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and unlawful monetary transactions related to theft of federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
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July 01, 2024
Womble Bond Adds Int'l Tax Partner In Houston Office
Womble Bond Dickinson has added a partner to its corporate and securities group in Houston who will focus on tax law and cross-border transactions, the firm announced.
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July 01, 2024
Tax Court Again Rules Against Couple On Social Security Pay
A California couple should have included Social Security disability payments in their income on their federal tax return, the U.S. Tax Court said Monday, upholding an Internal Revenue Service determination against the couple in such a case for a second time.
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July 01, 2024
US-Taiwan Biz Groups Push For True Double-Tax Treaty
Top-ranking Senate members should push for the start of consultations on a bilateral tax treaty to avoid double taxation between the U.S. and Taiwan as opposed to measures already included in a stalled larger bill, two groups focused on business relations between the countries said.
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July 01, 2024
Nelson Mullins Adds 9-Attorney Tax Team In Houston
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP announced Monday that five partners and four other tax attorneys have joined its new Houston office from Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry, including a former Texas Supreme Court justice.
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July 01, 2024
Longtime IRS Trial Atty Joins Jones Day In NY
An attorney who spent his entire career at the IRS has moved to private practice at Jones Day, the firm said on Monday.
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July 01, 2024
Firm Can't Cast Off $1.5M Tax Levy In Alter Ego Case
A Baltimore law firm can't stop a $1.5 million tax levy that allowed the IRS to freeze its bank account, a Maryland federal judge ruled, saying the firm failed to prove at this point in its suit that one of its clients lacked an interest in the money.
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July 01, 2024
IRS Floats Taking Tax Payments Directly By Credit Card
Taxpayers using credit cards could sidestep third-party payment processors and make tax payments directly to the IRS under regulations the agency proposed Monday that align with the Taxpayer First Act.
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July 01, 2024
IRS Regs Would Tax Overpayment Interest On COVID Credits
Businesses, tax-exempt groups and some governmental entities could be taxed on overpayment interest received for erroneous refunds of pandemic relief tax credits under proposed Internal Revenue Service regulations released Monday.
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July 01, 2024
Top 3 Federal Tax Policies Of 2024: Midyear Report
Despite an energetic start of the year with the House's overwhelming passage of a bipartisan tax package negotiated between the chairs of the House and Senate's tax-writing committees, tax policy discussions in Congress have slowed down in the months since. Here, Law360 looks at the most consequential developments in federal tax policy from the first half of 2024.
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July 01, 2024
Supreme Court Widens Window To Challenge Federal Regs
Legal challenges to federal regulations can be brought outside the normal statute of limitations if someone isn't adversely affected until after the six-year window of time to file suit, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.
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June 28, 2024
Chevron's End Is Just The Start For Energized Agency Foes
By knocking down a powerful precedent that has towered over administrative law for 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court's right wing Friday gave a crowning achievement to anti-agency attorneys. But for those attorneys, the achievement is merely a means to an end, and experts expect a litigation blitzkrieg to materialize quickly in the aftermath.
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June 28, 2024
In Chevron Case, Justices Trade One Unknown For Another
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overrule a decades-old judicial deference doctrine may cause the "eternal fog of uncertainty" surrounding federal agency actions to dissipate and level the playing field in challenges of government policies, but lawyers warn it raises new questions over what rules courts must follow and how judges will implement them.
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June 28, 2024
The Tax Angle: IRS Budget Vote, TCJA's Racial Impact
From a look at an upcoming vote on IRS funding for fiscal 2025 to an analysis of GOP claims that tax incentives in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act benefited Black Americans, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few of the week's developing tax stories.
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June 28, 2024
IRS Finalizes Broker Rules For Digital Asset Sales
Brokers of digital assets such as cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens will face tax reporting requirements for the first time similar to those for brokers of securities and other financial instruments under final regulations issued Friday by the Internal Revenue Service.
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June 28, 2024
Final Rules Exempt REITs From Stock Buyback Tax
Real estate investment trusts and regulated investment companies may be able to avoid the stock buyback tax but would still be required to keep records under final regulations on reporting and paying the tax released by Treasury and the IRS Friday.
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June 28, 2024
IRS Plans To Quickly Finalize Partnership Basis-Shifting Regs
The IRS is moving quickly to finalize partnership rules that target abusive tax avoidance using basis shifting within related partnerships, the agency's top attorney said Friday, asking practitioners to weigh in on the rulemaking so enforcement can properly target the problematic transactions.
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June 28, 2024
IRS Improves Availability But Can Do More, TIGTA Says
The Internal Revenue Service has improved the accessibility and availability of customer services in underserved, underrepresented and rural communities, but it could do more to expand into other geographic areas, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Friday.
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June 28, 2024
IRS Whistleblower Office Overhaul In Process, Chief Says
The Internal Revenue Service is working through initiatives to improve its whistleblower program that were laid out in the agency's strategic operating plan, including improving systems and processes and drastically increasing staffing, the director of the agency's Whistleblower Office said Friday.
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June 28, 2024
NY Law Firm Botched Gas Co. Sale, Ex-Client Says
Albany, New York-based Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP is facing a lawsuit in New York federal court alleging it failed to properly structure the sale of a gas company and caused its owner to incur an avoidable tax liability.
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June 28, 2024
IRS Reminds Marijuana Businesses They Can't Get Tax Breaks
The Internal Revenue Service sought to remind taxpayers Friday that businesses selling marijuana, even in states where it's legal, are not entitled to federal tax deductions, saying some taxpayers are filing invalid claims for refunds through amended returns.
Expert Analysis
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What's Unique — And What's Not — In Trump Protective Order
A Manhattan judge's recent protective order limiting former President Donald Trump's access to evidence included restrictions uniquely tailored to the defendant, which should remind defense attorneys that it's always a good idea to fight these seemingly standard orders, says Julia Jayne at Jayne Law.
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The Nuts And Bolts Of IRS Domestic Content Tax Credit
Recent IRS guidance provides specifics on how renewable energy projects can qualify for bonus tax credits by meeting U.S. domestic content rules, but also creates a qualification framework that will be complicated for project developers to navigate, say Scott Cockerham and Wolfram Pohl at Orrick.
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How Cities Can Tackle Post-Pandemic Budgeting Dilemmas
Due to increasing office vacancies around the country, cities may consider politically unpopular actions to avoid bankruptcy, but they could also look to the capital markets to ride out the current real estate crisis and achieve debt service savings to help balance their budgets, say attorneys at Cadwalader.
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Guidance Adds Clarity To Energy Communities Bonus Credits
Recent IRS guidance on the Inflation Reduction Act's changes to tax credits for renewable energy projects offers much-needed pointers for developers and financing parties, and should allow them to more comfortably incorporate special bonus credits for projects in energy communities into their transactions, say Jorge Medina and Ira Aghai at Shearman.
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Taxing The Digital Economy: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
U.S. tech companies should watch for important developments in international taxation, including the resolution of Apple's decade-old state aid case, growing frustration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax plan and adoption of the digital services tax instead, says Joyce Beebe at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
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Big Tax Changes For Multinational Cos. In Budget Proposal
The Biden administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposes changes that would materially alter decades-old Internal Revenue Code provisions, requiring a shift in multinational corporations' tax planning strategies comparable to that required after enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, say Xenia Garofalo and Kyle Colonna at Eversheds Sutherland.
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SVB Collapse Reinvigorates Bank Accounting Debate
Silicon Valley Bank's sudden collapse revives questions over whether fair value or amortized cost accounting is the most appropriate for banks' financial reporting — a controversy that's crucial for understanding what information could have helped market participants better understand SVB's financial condition, say consultants at Analysis Group.
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Brownfield Renewables Guidance Leaves Site Eligibility Murky
Recent IRS guidance sheds some light on the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for renewable energy development on contaminated sites — but the eligibility of certain sites for brownfield status remains uncertain, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.
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Get Ready For IRS Criminal Crackdown On Crypto
Recent developments at the IRS, from a new operating plan to the announcement of a centralized data center, signal that the agency is ramping up criminal enforcement against those using digital assets to evade tax liabilities — and given its high conviction rate, companies and individuals must prioritize compliance, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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NFT Tax Guidance Shows IRS Interest In Crypto Enforcement
The IRS' first ever guidance addressing the federal income tax treatment of NFTs indicates the agency could take a potentially aggressive stance in enforcing U.S. tax laws in the NFT and crypto spaces, which could have a significant impact on the self-directed IRA market, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Substantiation Is Key When Gifting Crypto To Charity
A recent Internal Revenue Service memorandum makes clear that the agency will require substantiation when gifting cryptocurrency to charity, even for relatively small amounts, so donors need to be aware of the important differences between crypto and typical cash donations, says Sheryl Morrison at Lathrop GPM.
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Senate Credit Suisse Report Puts Attention On Banks, Trusts
The Senate Finance Committee's recent finding that Credit Suisse violated a plea agreement struck over its role in enabling offshore tax evasion has important ramifications for banks and trusts, including how they onboard, document and report on transactions relevant to U.S. reporting requirements, say Will Barry and Ian Herbert at Miller & Chevalier.
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Seeking IRS Accountability For Faulty Microcaptive Notice
Like the taxpayers in Standard Insurances v. U.S. seeking to expand earlier wins in microcaptive insurance cases that limit IRS use of improperly obtained information, others should consider ways to hold the agency accountable and provide incentive for it to follow the law going forward, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.