Federal
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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.
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June 28, 2024
Chevron Ruling No Sea Change For Tax Court, Judge Says
The U.S. Tax Court will continue to rely on the IRS and Treasury's expertise in the tax code following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine that directed courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous law, a judge said Friday.
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June 28, 2024
Spouse's Prenup Payments Count As Income, IRS Says
Support payments to a taxpayer from a former spouse made before they officially divorce constitute alimony and should be included in the taxpayer's gross income, the Internal Revenue Service said in a private letter ruling released Friday.
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June 28, 2024
IRS Revokes Variable Annuity Ruling From 2014
The IRS revoked part of a 2014 private letter ruling regarding an annuity option with variable payments that a taxpayer had planned to offer, saying in a ruling released Friday that it no longer agreed with its former position.
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June 28, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Vinson, Skadden
In this week's Taxation with Representation, Aareal Bank AG and Advent International sell a property management and maintenance software company, Webtoon Entertainment Inc. and Tamboran Resources Corp. price initial public offerings, SM Energy Company acquires oil and gas assets, and Nokia sells Alcatel Submarine Networks to the French state.
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June 28, 2024
Estate Owes $4.9M For Son-Of-Boss Scheme, US Says
An estate owes $4.9 million in tax liabilities for a couple's scheme to artificially cancel out their capital gains, the federal government said in a complaint in Michigan federal court, arguing that the Son-of-Boss scheme constitutes fraud and its proceeds aren't entitled to bankruptcy protection.
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June 28, 2024
Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin
The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, included an extension of the penalty relief for entities that fail to make estimated quarterly payments of the corporate alternative minimum tax.
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June 28, 2024
Supreme Court Strikes Down Chevron Deference
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned a decades-old precedent that instructed judges about when they could defer to federal agencies' interpretations of law in rulemaking, depriving courts of a commonly used analytic tool and leaving lots of questions about what comes next.
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June 27, 2024
Biden, Trump Spar Over Fate Of 2017 Tax Cuts In 1st Debate
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump debated the GOP's 2017 tax policy overhaul Thursday night, with Trump praising its economic benefits and Biden criticizing the tax cuts for favoring the wealthy and increasing federal deficits.
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June 27, 2024
IRS To Offer Combined Filing For Energy Investment Credits
The Internal Revenue Service will let clean energy project owners that are claiming investment tax credits for more than 200 facilities file the claims with a single form, an agency official said Thursday.
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June 27, 2024
Corp. Tax Cuts Worsen Racial, Income Inequality, Report Says
In the first year of a corporate tax break, white U.S. households receive 88% of the benefits while Black and Hispanic households each receive just 1%, according to a study published Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and an advocacy organization.
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June 27, 2024
TurboTax Maker Wipes Out 2 Of 3 Software Patents At PTAB
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board delivered a mixed bag of decisions in patent challenges brought by Intuit against a small software outfit that claims to have invented the idea of "co-browsing."
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June 27, 2024
High Response To IRS Transfer Pricing Letters, Official Says
Most taxpayers that received letters from the Internal Revenue Service pursuant to a compliance campaign warning them of a transfer pricing issue have responded, an IRS official said Thursday.
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June 27, 2024
Congress Shouldn't Rush OECD Tax Package, Group Says
Congress should avoid "rubber-stamping" the two pillars of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's plan to fight tax base erosion and profit shifting and instead gather more information on its impact on the U.S., a conservative advocacy group said Thursday.
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June 27, 2024
IRS Criminal Chief Says COVID Fraud Work To Hold Steady
IRS Criminal Investigation agents expect to spend as much time this year on coronavirus assistance policy-related fraud as last year, the division chief said at a conference Thursday.
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June 27, 2024
IRS Tells 10th Circ. To Deny Liberty Global's $110M Refund Bid
The U.S. government urged the Tenth Circuit on Thursday to reject telecommunication giant Liberty Global's push for a $110 million tax refund, arguing a lower court correctly deduced that the company's business restructurings were carried out solely to avoid tax.
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June 27, 2024
$2.1B Danish Tax Fraud Suspect Won't Testify, Court Says
A New York federal court denied dueling requests from U.S. pension plan investors accused of participating in a $2.1 billion Danish tax fraud scheme and from Denmark's tax agency to bring in the man that both sides say masterminded the scheme, or to bring in one of his employees.
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June 27, 2024
Ex-Skadden Tax Head And M&A Pro Joins Freshfields In NY
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP has added the former head of the tax practice at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP as a partner this week, who brings to the role experience in deals like 21st Century Fox's $71 billion acquisition by Disney and the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.
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June 27, 2024
TIGTA Points To Areas Of Improvement For Direct File
A phase of the Direct File pilot program that allowed eligible IRS employees to get the first crack at the online tax filing service had issues with accuracy of its tax returns and lacked a Spanish translation, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Thursday.
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June 27, 2024
New FATCA Deal Requires US Banks To Share Info With Swiss
The United States and Switzerland signed a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act agreement that will require U.S. banks to share financial account information on a bilateral basis, Switzerland's Federal Department of Finance announced Thursday.
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June 27, 2024
IRS Delays Tax Deadlines In Miss. After April Storms
Certain Mississippi taxpayers affected by storms, tornadoes and flooding that hit the state starting April 8 now have until Nov. 1 to file individual and business tax returns and make payments, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday.
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June 26, 2024
Repatriation Tax Ruling May Sway State Wealth Tax Debates
The U.S. Supreme Court's upholding of the federal repatriation tax could indirectly affect state tax policy discussions, including by influencing consideration of wealth taxes and encouraging states to keep potential due process issues in mind when enacting tax legislation.
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June 26, 2024
Tax Court Says Couple Wrongly Claimed Unsigned Checks
A Minnesota eye doctor and his wife overstated their income on their joint tax return, as they declared pay that they never actually received from their corporation in the form of unsigned checks, the U.S. Tax Court said in an opinion released Wednesday.
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June 26, 2024
IRS To Make Syndicated Easement Settlement Offers
The Internal Revenue Service will send settlement offers next month to some taxpayers who participated in syndicated conservation easement deals that the agency is auditing, it announced Wednesday.
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June 26, 2024
Advice Panel Calls For Regulating Noncredentialed Preparers
Congress should authorize the Internal Revenue Service to regulate noncredentialed tax preparers to protect taxpayers and the tax system from erroneous returns, the agency's Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee said in its annual report to lawmakers Wednesday.
Expert Analysis
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US-India Advance Pricing Resolutions Should Reassure Cos.
The United States' and India's tax authorities' recent resolution of a significant number of pending advance pricing agreements should reduce taxpayer uncertainty, reassure companies of the nations' good working relationship and improve India's investment environment, say Miller Williams and Caroline Setliffe at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Reimagining Benefits For A World Without Noncompetes
Though the Federal Trade Commission's recently proposed noncompete ban is still in its infancy, companies should begin considering whether they would need to retool their payment and benefits packages to comply, while still protecting their competitive edge, say Melissa Ostrower and Alec Nealon at Jackson Lewis.
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A Closer Look At Rep. Santos' Claims And Potential Charges
Skadden partner and former federal prosecutor Maria Cruz Melendez discusses Rep. George Santos' legal exposure following his alleged misrepresentations and the possible scope of investigations into his conduct — noting that if history is any indication, the congressman could face prison time if convicted.
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Stock Buyback Excise Tax Guidance A Mixed Bag For SPACs
Recent IRS guidance on the new stock repurchase excise tax includes a welcome exception for publicly traded special-purpose acquisition companies but does not exclude redemptions in connection with a de-SPAC transaction, and further guidance is needed to clarify ambiguities around the exception's application, say Olga Bogush and Evgeny Magidenko at ArentFox Schiff.
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Crypto Coverage After FTX Fall: Accountant And Atty Liability
The recent fall of cryptocurrency firm FTX highlights complexities regarding accounting and tax reporting for digital assets, and reveals lawyers’ potential liability exposure when providing services to crypto firms — as a result, insurers may face unintended vulnerabilities related to this nebulous landscape, say Anjali Das and Farzana Ahmed at Wilson Elser.
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The Forces Defining Sales Tax Policy And Compliance In 2023
In the coming year, expect to see tax policymakers grapple with the complexity of state and local tax compliance, cryptocurrency, metaverse transactions, and more, says Scott Peterson at Avalara.
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Inflation Reduction Act's Methane Tax May Be Unenforceable
Recent legislation directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose a first-ever direct charge on methane emissions from oil and gas operations — but two fundamental problems with the formula for calculating this tax could make it impossible for the EPA to implement, say Poe Leggette and Bailey Bridges at BakerHostetler.
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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.