Federal
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September 23, 2024
Profs, Retired Judges Ask Justices To Uphold Return Of Taxes
Two former bankruptcy judges and a group of law professors threw their support behind the bankruptcy trustee of a Utah transportation company seeking to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that the IRS, like any other creditor, should have to return payments deemed fraudulent under state law.
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September 23, 2024
IRS Finalizing Pricing Pact Guidance, Official Says
The Internal Revenue Service is in the final stages of updating revenue procedures to help multinational corporations pursue advance pricing agreements and resolve tax treaty disputes, and it will release the guidance soon, an agency official said Monday.
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September 23, 2024
IRS Names Chief Of Appeals Office
The Internal Revenue Service elevated the acting chief of its Independent Office of Appeals to the position permanently, the agency announced Monday.
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September 23, 2024
Squire Patton Tax Ace Joins Winston & Strawn In Dallas
Winston & Strawn LLP announced Monday it has expanded its tax offerings with the addition of an experienced attorney from Squire Patton Boggs LLP in Texas.
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September 23, 2024
Julie Chrisley Fights For Sentence Cut After 11th Circ. Ruling
Former reality TV star Julie Chrisley asked a Georgia federal judge on Friday to resentence her to no more than five years for her role in a $36 million tax evasion and fraud scheme, arguing against prosecutors' insistence that the seven-year sentence she was previously given be kept intact.
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September 20, 2024
Family Owes $81M Taxes On 'Son-Of-Boss' Scheme, DOJ Says
Former shareholders of a family-owned holding company owe the IRS nearly $81 million for participating in what is known as a Son-of-Boss arrangement, which generated fake capital losses in the 2022 sale of company stock, the U.S. Department of Justice told a New York federal court.
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September 20, 2024
8th Circ. To Hear Args In 3M's $24M Tax Case Next Month
The Eighth Circuit said Friday that it will hear oral arguments next month in 3M's transfer pricing appeal, in which the multinational conglomerate is challenging the Internal Revenue Service's authority to reallocate to the company $24 million from a Brazilian affiliate.
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September 20, 2024
IRS Updates Per-Diem Deduction Rates For Business Travel
The per-diem rates used to compute business travel expense tax deductions will be $319 for travel to high-cost areas and $225 for travel to low-cost areas starting in October, the Internal Revenue Service said Friday.
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September 20, 2024
Divestiture Counts As Reorganization, IRS Says
A domestic corporation with some foreign shareholders that is required to divest itself of one of its businesses by using a newly created corporation as an intermediary for the distribution qualifies as a tax-free reorganization, the IRS said in a private letter ruling released Friday.
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September 20, 2024
IRS Special Trial Attorney Joins Hochman Salkin In California
When Hochman Salkin Toscher Perez PC's newest principal, Sebastian Voth, was studying at Emory University School of Law, a former chief counsel for the Internal Revenue Service told students that the IRS was a great place to start their careers. After 15 years as an IRS attorney, Voth found that the agency was also a great place to work, he told Law360 Pulse in an interview Friday.
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September 20, 2024
IRS Not Meeting Disclosure Requirements For Joint Returns
The Internal Revenue Service did not uniformly follow joint return disclosure requirements on collection information requests, burdening taxpayers with additional delays resolving their tax matters and possibly violating their privacy rights, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Friday.
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September 20, 2024
Tribe's Stateless Status Undoes $1.9M Construction Suit
A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday tossed a New York construction company's $1.9 million lawsuit against the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, finding the tribe's stateless position leaves the court with no jurisdiction to decide the case.
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September 20, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Gibson Dunn, Holland & Knight
In this week's Taxation With Representation, CACI International buys Azure Summit Technology, Hotel Engine lands a valuation led by Permira, and Knowles Corp. sells its microphone business to Syntiant Corp.
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September 20, 2024
IRS Must Credit Overpayments, Couple Tell 5th Circ.
A couple claiming they should be allowed to sue the IRS for a roughly $500,000 tax refund in federal court because they overpaid their taxes told the Fifth Circuit that the agency is out of time to challenge their overpayments and must credit their account.
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September 20, 2024
IRS Corrects Proposed Clean Electricity Bonus Credit Regs
The Internal Revenue Service issued corrections Friday to proposed regulations that would broaden the types of power facilities that could be eligible for clean electricity low-income community bonus credit amounts starting in 2025.
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September 20, 2024
Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin
The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, included proposed regulations that would adjust the timing for when companies could opt to use the so-called mark-to-market accounting method for gains or losses that arise from foreign currency transactions.
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September 19, 2024
Ch. 7 Trustee Urges Justices To Uphold Return Of Taxes
The bankruptcy trustee of a defunct Utah transportation company warned the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that overturning a decision forcing the IRS to return tax payments made by company directors to cover their personal debts would encourage shareholder fraud.
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September 19, 2024
Convicted Drexel Professor Won't Get New Tax Evasion Trial
A Drexel University accounting professor was denied a new trial after being convicted on tax evasion charges for failing to report $3.3 million in income from a Trenton pharmacy, a New Jersey federal judge has ruled, reasoning that the professor's case was not prejudiced by keeping accounting records related to his tax returns from the jury.
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September 19, 2024
House Bill Proposes Tax Incentives For Military Housing
A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would seek to increase the availability and affordability of housing for service members in part by excluding the military's basic housing allowance from the income calculation for the low-income housing tax credit.
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September 19, 2024
Calif. Says FDIC's $20M Tax Refund Bid Must Wait
A California tax collection agency asked a New York federal court to throw out Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. claims seeking a more than $20 million tax refund on behalf of the shuttered Signature Bank, saying the agency is entitled to wait for a potential IRS audit to end.
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September 19, 2024
Death Doesn't Preclude FBAR Penalties, Judge Says
The death of a U.S. citizen who failed to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts doesn't stop the U.S. government from enforcing penalties against his estate, a New York federal judge ruled.
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September 19, 2024
Senate Tees Up Vote On Tax Court Nominee
The U.S. Senate set the stage Thursday to proceed with a vote on one of President Joe Biden's picks to fill an open seat on the U.S. Tax Court.
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September 19, 2024
GAO Says IRS Can Be Better Prepped For Reporting Changes
While the Internal Revenue Service could collect billions thanks to recent reporting requirement changes, particularly those related to cryptocurrency, the agency needs to take further steps to be prepared for the changes, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
H&R Block Again Asks 8th Circ. To Remove ALJs In Ad Suit
H&R Block asked the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its denial of the company's request to stop administrative law judges from presiding over its coming false-advertising hearing before the Federal Trade Commission, saying the court's one-sentence ruling lacked any explanation despite the significant constitutional issues involved.
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September 19, 2024
IRS Warns Taxpayers Of Offer-In-Compromise 'Mills'
The IRS urged taxpayers to be careful about working with promoters that claim to provide necessary services in order to comply with the agency's offer-in-compromise program, saying Thursday that these "mills" only bring "empty promises and steep costs."
Expert Analysis
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Secure 2.0 Takeaways From DOL's 2024 Budget Proposal
The U.S. Department of Labor’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal provides insight into the most pressing Secure 2.0 implementation issues, including establishment of a search database for finding lost retirement savings and developing guidance on the execution of newly authorized emergency savings accounts, say attorneys at Maynard Nexsen.
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Avoiding Negative Tax Consequences In Loan Modifications
Borrowers who may be caught in the dramatic uptick in nonperforming commercial real estate loans should consider strategies to avoid income and capital gains tax that may be triggered by loan modifications, says Aman Badyal at Glaser Weil.
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Benefits And Beyond: Fixing Employee Contribution Failures
Employers must address employee contribution failures promptly in order to avoid losing significant tax benefits of 401(k) or 403(b) plans, but the exact correction procedures vary depending on whether contributions were less than or greater than intended, say attorneys at Seyfarth Shaw.
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Now Is The Time For State And Local Sales Tax Simplification
In the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, state and local governments increasingly rely on sales tax, but simple changes are needed to make compliance more manageable for taxpayers, wherever located, without unduly burdening interstate commerce, says Charles Maniace at Sovos.
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Recent Bills Show Congress' Growing Maturity On Cannabis
Though two recently introduced cannabis reform bills, the Prepare Act and the Small Business Tax Equity Act, are unlikely to pass in this Congress, they demonstrate a new level of focus and sophistication on the part of lawmakers as it relates to cannabis at the federal level, says Irina Dashevsky at Greenspoon Marder.
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What To Make Of IRS' New Advance Pricing Guidance
Recent guidance on the IRS' goals for its advance pricing agreement system provides helpful insight into review and decision-making procedures for advance pricing agreement requests, but it also raises questions about the IRS' objectives, say Richard Slowinski and Stefanie Kavanagh at Alston & Bird.
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Compliance Obligations Still Murky For Superfund Excise Tax
Comments on the IRS' reinstatement of the Superfund chemicals excise tax show that, given taxpayers' lack of institutional knowledge and the government's previous failure to finalize clarifying guidance, further regulatory action is needed to help taxpayers understand their obligations, say Nicole Elliott and Mary Kate Nicholson at Holland & Knight.
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The Reciprocal Tax Bill Is A Warning Shot At Pillar 2
A bill recently introduced in the House of Representatives to reciprocally tax countries deemed to have imposed discriminatory taxes on U.S. citizens and businesses takes aim at countries implementing the global minimum tax treaty known as Pillar Two, with which the U.S. has not complied, says Alan Cole at the Tax Foundation.
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3 Developments That May Usher In A Nuclear Energy Revival
A recent advancement in nuclear energy technology, targeted provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act and a new G7 agreement on nuclear fuel supply chains may give nuclear power a seat at the table as a viable, zero-carbon energy source, say attorneys at Vinson & Elkins.
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What Tax-Exempt Orgs. Need From Energy Credit Guidance
Guidance clarifying the Inflation Reduction Act’s credit regime, expected from the U.S. Department of the Treasury this summer, should help tax-exempt organizations determine the benefits of clean energy projects and integrate alternative energy investments into their activities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Unconventional Profits Interest Structures Find New Support
A recent U.S. Tax Court ruling should provide comfort that less-than-plain-vanilla profits interest structures, created to achieve complicated economic arrangements, can succeed in generating more optimal tax outcomes, provided the terms are properly drafted, says Daren Shaver at Hanson Bridgett.
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Roadblocks For Cannabis Employers Setting Up 401(k) Plans
Though the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act generally allow cannabis businesses to establish 401(k) plans for their employees, companies must still pick their way through uncertainties around tax deductions and recruiting reliable vendors, say attorneys at Shipman & Goodwin.
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How Foreign Info Return Penalty Case May Benefit Taxpayers
The U.S. Tax Court's recent decision that the Internal Revenue Service cannot penalize taxpayers for failing to file foreign corporation information returns may give similarly situated taxpayers an opportunity to also avoid penalties, provided they protect their rights before the decision is overturned or mooted by legislation, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.