Federal

  • January 28, 2025

    Ukrainian Duo Get 15 Years In $25M Tax Fraud Case

    A Florida federal judge sentenced two Ukrainian men to 15 years in prison after they pled guilty to laundering money from a hotel staffing scheme that the U.S. government said cost it $25 million in taxes.

  • January 28, 2025

    Miami Tax Biz's False Filings Case On Hold After Settlement

    The U.S. Department of Justice and the owner of a Miami-based tax preparation business reached a settlement in a suit accusing her of filing fraudulent returns on behalf of clients, a Florida federal judge said Tuesday, administratively closing the case.

  • January 28, 2025

    Tax Group Of The Year: Cravath

    Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP helped secure high-profile mergers and acquisitions for major media and communications companies in 2024, having played key roles in Paramount's $28 billion merger agreement with Skydance Media and a separate deal involving Verizon Communications, earning the law firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Tax Groups of the Year.

  • January 28, 2025

    Judge Temporarily Halts Trump's Funding Freeze

    A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal spending that was set to go into effect at 5 p.m., as a group of nearly two dozen attorneys general filed a separate case challenging what they described as an illegal and potentially catastrophic move.

  • January 28, 2025

    Wealth Manager Cops To Funding Lifestyle With Client Money

    A suburban Philadelphia investment adviser pled guilty in federal court Tuesday morning to charges that he stole more than $20 million of his clients' money, which he spent on international travel, country club dues, and a stake in a New Jersey mini golf course.

  • January 27, 2025

    Feds' Madigan Informant Is A 'Malignant Tumor,' Jury Told

    An attorney for ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan took aim Monday at the former Chicago alderman called as the government's star witness in Madigan's criminal racketeering trial, calling him "a malignant tumor at the heart of this case" and urging jurors not to trust his testimony as they prepare to deliberate on his client's fate.

  • January 27, 2025

    Senate Confirms Bessent As Treasury Secretary

    A bipartisan majority of senators voted Monday to confirm billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, putting in place a key member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet.

  • January 27, 2025

    Meet The Attys Surrounding Pa. Wealth Manager In Fraud Case

    By the time Scott Mason and his company Rubicon Wealth Management were hit with criminal and regulatory enforcement claims alleging he stole $20 million from clients, the suburban Philadelphia wealth manager was already defending multiple civil lawsuits in Pennsylvania state court.

  • January 27, 2025

    SCOTUSblog Publisher Pleads Not Guilty To Tax Crimes

    U.S. Supreme Court advocate and SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein pled not guilty in Maryland federal court on Monday to charges that he schemed to evade taxes and used funds from his boutique law firm to cover gambling debts.

  • January 27, 2025

    Tax Pro's Personal Returns Fair Game, 3rd Circ. Affirms

    The Third Circuit upheld a Pennsylvania district court's conviction of a tax preparer for filing false returns on behalf of his clients, saying the court didn't make a mistake in allowing the government to submit the preparer's own false returns as evidence.

  • January 24, 2025

    Feds' Madigan Theory 'Doesn't Line Up,' His Atty Tells Jury

    Counsel for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan told an Illinois federal jury Friday that prosecutors attempting to convict him of racketeering have painted an "incomplete and misleading" picture of a crooked politician at trial, but have failed to meet their burden to prove he ever acted with corrupt intent or engaged in a "this for that" exchange for his official action.

  • January 24, 2025

    Gov't Says Ukrainian Duo Should Get 15 Years For $25M Fraud

    Prosecutors have asked a Florida federal court to sentence two Ukrainian men to 15½ years in prison after they pled guilty to laundering money from a hotel staffing scheme that the U.S. government said cost it $25 million in taxes.

  • January 24, 2025

    Tech Co. Founder Gets 2.5 Years In $14M Payroll Tax Case

    A New Hampshire federal judge sentenced the founder of a technology startup to two and a half years in prison for failing to pay more than $14 million in employment and personal taxes, granting a request from prosecutors who said incarceration was the only meaningful sentence.

  • January 24, 2025

    GOP Sens. Propose Permanent Pass-Through Break

    The 2017 federal tax law's pass-through deduction would be made permanent under legislation co-signed by more than half of the Senate's Republicans.

  • January 24, 2025

    IRS Says Athlete NIL Charity-Work Collective Not Tax-Exempt

    An organization that pays college athletes from an unidentified university for the of use their names, images and likenesses in exchange for their participation in charity and educational events is not tax-exempt, the Internal Revenue Service said Friday.

  • January 24, 2025

    Law Students Scramble As Federal Gov't Yanks Job Offers

    Law students across the country are scrambling to figure out their next steps after a range of federal agencies yanked job and internship offers this week because of the new hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration.

  • January 24, 2025

    House Bill Would Repeal Stock Buyback Tax

    The excise tax on stock buybacks would be repealed under legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

  • January 24, 2025

    Hunter Biden Pans IRS Agents' Appeal To Enter Privacy Suit

    Hunter Biden urged the D.C. Circuit to affirm a ruling preventing the IRS agents he has accused of improperly revealing his tax return information from intervening in his privacy suit against the U.S. government, saying the court should reject their claims about the importance of their participation.

  • January 24, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Latham, Simpson Thacher

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, a Brookfield private real estate fund acquires Divvy Homes' property portfolio and platform, Kantar Group proposes the sale of Kantar Media, and an Ares Management-led group buys a majority of Form Technologies Inc.'s common equity.

  • January 24, 2025

    Former Mass. Transit Facilities Engineer Admits $8.5M Fraud

    A former facilities engineer for the private company that runs Massachusetts' commuter rail lines has pled guilty to defrauding his former employer of approximately $8.5 million through a pair of schemes and failing to report the funds on his income tax returns.

  • January 24, 2025

    Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin

    The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, included final regulations allowing an IRS supervisor to approve penalties anytime before the agency assess them as well as before it issues a preassessment notice subject to a U.S. Tax Court review, such as a deficiency notice.

  • January 23, 2025

    Madigan's Law Firm Profits Drove Corrupt Acts, Jury Told

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's ownership interest in his Chicago law firm and his entitlement to 50% of its profits was behind his efforts to extort property tax business from developers who needed approvals from state and local government for their projects, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury Thursday.

  • January 23, 2025

    Taiwan Double-Tax Relief Floated In Senate After House OK

    The Senate Finance Committee introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would grant tax benefits to Taiwanese businesses in the U.S. and authorize the White House to negotiate a tax agreement with Taiwan, following the House of Representatives' approval of companion legislation.

  • January 23, 2025

    Tribe Member's Tax Debts Can Be Discharged, 10th Circ. Told

    The Tenth Circuit should overturn a lower court's finding that a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation's tax debts did not qualify for a discharge from bankruptcy, he told the appeals court, saying the debts weren't based on his actual income.

  • January 23, 2025

    Corporate Transparency Law Remains Flanked By Threats

    The Corporate Transparency Act is facing threats across the branches of government despite the U.S. Supreme Court pausing a nationwide injunction on it Thursday, with another universal injunction in place, other court battles underway and some Republican lawmakers targeting the law.

Expert Analysis

  • How Cannabis Rescheduling May Alter Paraphernalia Imports

    Author Photo

    The Biden administration's recent proposal to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana use raises questions about how U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforcement policies may shift when it comes to enforcing a separate federal ban on marijuana accessory imports, says R. Kevin Williams at Clark Hill.

  • NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It

    Author Photo

    The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.

  • Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge​​​​​​​ at Robinson Bradshaw.

  • A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence

    Author Photo

    The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.

  • To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef

    Author Photo

    To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

    Author Photo

    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • BF Borgers Clients Should Review Compliance, Liability

    Author Photo

    After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently announced enforcement proceedings against audit firm BF Borgers for fabricating audit documentation for hundreds of public companies, those companies will need to follow special procedures for disclosure and reporting — and may need to prepare for litigation from the plaintiffs bar, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

    Author Photo

    As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

  • What Updated PLR Procedure May Mean For Stock Spin-Offs

    Author Photo

    A recently published Internal Revenue Service revenue procedure departs from commonly understood interpretations of the spinoff rules by imposing more stringent standards on companies seeking private letter rulings regarding tax-free stock spinoff and split-off transactions, and may presage regulatory changes that would have the force of law, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Proposed Cannabis Reschedule Sidesteps State Law Effects

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent proposal to move cannabis to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act provides certain benefits, but its failure to address how the rescheduling would interact with existing state cannabis laws disappointed industry participants hoping for clarity on this crucial question, says Ian Stewart at Wilson Elser.

  • How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case

    Author Photo

    The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.

  • Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content

    Author Photo

    From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.

  • New Crypto Reporting Will Require Rigorous Recordkeeping

    Author Photo

    The release of a form for reporting digital asset transactions is a pivotal moment in the Internal Revenue Service's efforts to track cryptocurrency activities that increases oversight by requiring brokers to report investor sales and exchanges, say Shaina Kamen and Max Angel at Holland & Knight.

Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Tax Authority Federal archive.