Federal
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June 05, 2024
CohnReznick Scores Quick Exit In Tax Scheme Suit
A New York federal judge agreed to toss a housing partnership's suit accusing accounting firm CohnReznick LLP of professional negligence and fraud, finding that the district court doesn't have jurisdiction over the dispute.
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June 05, 2024
IRS Must Better Log AI Use In Tax Gap Estimates, GAO Says
The Internal Revenue Service needs to complete documentation on its use of artificial intelligence models as part of a plan to improve its tax gap estimates, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.
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June 05, 2024
Californian Failed To Report Missing Income, Tax Court Says
A California woman's contention that she should not be accountable for a deficiency in her 2021 tax filing due to what she said was an error by her accountant doesn't stand up under scrutiny, the U.S. Tax Court said Wednesday.
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June 05, 2024
Some Payments After Train Derailed Aren't Taxable, IRS Says
Certain payments from Norfolk Southern Corp. to victims of its freight train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, are considered disaster relief payments and are therefore not taxable, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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June 05, 2024
House Panel Tees Up $2B In IRS Cuts For Full Committee Vote
A House Appropriations subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday that would reduce Internal Revenue Service funding for fiscal 2025 by over $2 billion and prohibit money from going to the agency's free online tax-filing program without congressional approval.
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June 05, 2024
Win May Embolden IRS Use Of Economic Substance Doctrine
The IRS' successful wielding of the economic substance doctrine to characterize multinational telecommunications corporation Liberty Global's sophisticated set of intercompany deals as an abusive tax shelter could encourage the agency to apply similar analysis to even the most basic tax transactions.
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June 05, 2024
IRS Presses Justices To Weigh In On Tax Challenge Deadline
The IRS urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Third Circuit decision finding the U.S. Tax Court's 90-day deadline for challenging tax bills is not set in stone, arguing the couple defending the ruling are wrongly relying on a 2022 high court decision.
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June 05, 2024
Billionaire's 'Naive' Stock-Trading Pilot Asks For No Prison
A private pilot for U.K. billionaire Joe Lewis is asking for no prison time after pleading guilty to insider trading on stock tips provided by his boss, arguing that he has otherwise lived a law-abiding life and is less culpable than many white-collar defendants who've come through the Manhattan federal court.
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June 05, 2024
Taxpayer Advocacy Committee Meeting Moved Up
The Internal Revenue Service moved up an open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel's Notices and Correspondence Project Committee to June 18, it said Wednesday.
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June 04, 2024
Full DC Circ. Asked To Weigh Foreign Info Disclosure Penalties
A D.C. Circuit panel made questionable assumptions about congressional intent when it revived the IRS' authority to assess and administratively collect penalties related to undisclosed foreign corporations, a businessman said Tuesday in asking the full appellate court to hear his case.
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June 04, 2024
Sen. Leaders Press Biden's Tax Court Nominees On Fairness
Senate Finance Committee leaders pressed President Joe Biden's three new judicial nominees for the U.S. Tax Court to explain Tuesday how they would extend fair treatment to taxpayers if they are confirmed.
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June 04, 2024
Aflac Matriarch's Estate Owes $1.9M Penalty, Tax Court Told
The Internal Revenue Service is seeking an additional accuracy penalty of over $1.9 million from the estate of the matriarch of the family that founded Aflac, according to a filing in the U.S. Tax Court.
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June 04, 2024
Tax Law Firm Can't Kick Ex-Clients' Class Suit To Arbitration
Former clients of a Florida-based tax law firm who live in Wisconsin can move forward with their proposed class action accusing the firm of malpractice and charging illegal fees, a Wisconsin federal judge ruled Tuesday, rejecting the firm's requests to toss the suit or move it to arbitration.
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June 04, 2024
Tax Court Turns Down Whistleblower's Push To Boost Award
Though a tax whistleblower contended he should be entitled to a reward based on the entire amount of deficiencies discovered in a large investigation, the IRS was right to calculate his reward based only on the specific taxpayer he identified, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday.
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June 04, 2024
House Bill Would Cut $2B In IRS Funding, Restrict Direct File
The chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that handles Internal Revenue Service funding introduced legislation Tuesday to cut that funding for fiscal 2025 by over $2 billion and prohibit money from going to the agency's free online tax-filing program without congressional approval.
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June 04, 2024
11th Circ. Affirms Nix Of IRS Easement Disclosure Guidance
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Tuesday that an Internal Revenue Service notice imposing reporting requirements on potentially abusive conservation easements was invalid because the agency failed to solicit the public feedback required by administrative law.
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June 04, 2024
IRS Announces 6 Tax Court Sessions Added To Calendar
The Internal Revenue Service announced six U.S. Tax Court sessions in October and named calendar administrators for the sessions in a notice released Tuesday.
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June 04, 2024
IRS Didn't Have To Tell Man About Summonses, 5th Circ. Told
The Internal Revenue Service wasn't required to tell a Texas man with unpaid tax liabilities that it had demanded his financial information from third parties, the agency told the Fifth Circuit, urging it to affirm a lower-court decision tossing the man's suit challenging the summonses.
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June 03, 2024
FTX, IRS Propose Settling $8B Tax Fight For Just $885M
FTX and the Internal Revenue Service have reached a proposed settlement worth roughly $885 million that would resolve the agency's contention that the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange operator owes $8 billion in taxes, according to a motion filed Monday in Delaware federal bankruptcy court.
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June 03, 2024
Danish Tax Agency Says $2.1B Tax Fraud Suits Not Filed Late
Denmark's tax administrator urged a New York federal court to reject bids to toss its suits against U.S. pension plans and individuals it accuses of participating in a $2.1 billion fraud scheme, saying the suits were not filed too late.
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June 03, 2024
Treasury Aims To Salvage Corp. Transparency Act At 11th Circ.
The Corporate Transparency Act is a valid exercise of congressional authority to curb money laundering under the commerce clause and the necessary and proper clause in the Constitution, the U.S. Treasury Department told the Eleventh Circuit on Monday in a bid to restore the law's reporting requirements.
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June 03, 2024
Suzanne Somers' Estate Owes $2.7M, Tax Court Says
Television producer Alan Hamel and the estate of his wife, actor Suzanne Somers, owe nearly $2.7 million in taxes and penalties going back to 1996 related to losses in a partnership, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Monday.
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June 03, 2024
IRS Correctly Denied Man Collection Alternative, Court Says
The Internal Revenue Service did not abuse its discretion when rejecting a Florida man's collection alternative request, the U.S. Tax Court said Monday.
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June 03, 2024
Couple Can't Justify $3.7M Loss Deduction, Tax Court Says
A New York couple failed to adequately prove that they should have been able to claim $3.7 million in net operating losses on their personal income taxes that were generated by settlement payments made by a company they owned, the U.S. Tax Court said Monday.
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June 03, 2024
Tax Convictions Withstand Poor Counsel Claim, 4th Circ. Says
A North Carolina man's claim of ineffective counsel is not sufficient reason to vacate his convictions for filing false tax returns and obstructing an official proceeding in a case involving $2.1 million in unreported income sent from Bermuda entities, the Fourth Circuit ruled.
Expert Analysis
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IRS Green Energy Tax Credit Notice Provides Needed Clarity
Recent IRS guidance clarifying how the government will determine energy community locations for purposes of bonus clean energy tax credits should help resolve risk allocation disagreements among financing parties and parties to merger and acquisition transactions, say Casey August and Paul Gordon at Morgan Lewis.
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SVB Collapse Highlights Ch. 11 Issues With Bank Holding Cos.
Amid recent banking turmoil, including Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and subsequent Chapter 11 filing of its parent company, distressed debt investors and board members must understand the distinct rules in bank holding company bankruptcies, including Bankruptcy Code provisions granting significant advantages to federal regulatory agencies like the FDIC, say attorneys at Skadden.
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9th Circ. Ruling Legitimizes Classwide Injury In Predominance
The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling that vacated class certification in Van v. LLR makes clear that the question of injury is highly relevant to the predominance analysis, and underscores the importance of making a persuasive argument that injury is individualized within the class, say attorneys at Skadden.
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IRS' Cost Method Update Is Favorable For RE Developers
The Internal Revenue Service's recent update to its alternative cost method will allow real estate developers to accelerate their cost recovery of improvements in certain circumstances and make it easier for practitioners to satisfy the method's tax compliance requirements, says Benjamin Oklan at Weil.
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The Key Issues Keeping Transfer Pricing A Top Tax Concern
Several challenges preventing a global economic reemergence from the pandemic era are making practitioners reevaluate commonly used transfer pricing models, and embrace new technologies and ways of doing business, say Farnaz Amini and Sophia Castro Jurado at Marcum.
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Cannabis Cos. Must Heed Growing Federal Investigatory Risks
As state-regulated cannabis markets expand rapidly, so too does government oversight, and industry participants must plan ahead to avoid potential liabilities related to workplace health and safety requirements, tax audits, securities regulations and foreign bribery laws, say Alicia Corona and Amy Rubenstein at Dentons.
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5 Ways Taxpayers Can Spot Employee Retention Credit Scams
On Monday, the Internal Revenue Service added the employee retention credit to its list of prevalent tax scams because of ERC promoters seeking to take advantage of employers, but taxpayers who may qualify for the credit can protect themselves by recognizing certain red flags, say attorneys at Potomac Law and Stout Risius.
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Could The Supreme Court Legalize Marijuana Federally?
Amid slow legislative and executive movement on cannabis reform, it’s worth examining whether the U.S. Supreme Court could provide a pathway to federal cannabis legalization — a decision that would surely require strange bedfellows given the court’s current ideological makeup, say Whitt Steineker and Mason Kruse at Bradley Arant.
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Tax Pitfalls To Avoid In Employment Litigation Settlements
Downsizing companies should keep certain questions in mind when settling claims with departing employees to ensure they understand associated tax withholding and reporting obligations, and avoid costly interest and penalties down the road, says Matthew Meltzer at Flaster Greenberg.
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Key Considerations For Taxpayers Deducting Crypto Losses
While a recent Internal Revenue Service memorandum is helpful in providing insight into how the agency is considering guidance related to cryptocurrency, questions remain with respect to whether a taxpayer can claim a tax deduction for cryptocurrency losses, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Justices' MoneyGram Opinion Could Spur State Legislation
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision that federal law governs the escheatment of over $250 million in unclaimed MoneyGram checks provides clarity for some issuers, but aspects of related common law remain uncertain and states may take the opportunity to pass multistate escheatment legislation, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Justices Leave Questions Open On Dual-Purpose Atty Advice
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent dismissal of In re: Grand Jury on grounds that certiorari was improvidently granted leaves unresolved a circuit split over the proper test for deciding when attorney-client privilege protects a lawyer's advice that has multiple purposes, say Susan Combs and Richard Kiely at Holland & Hart.
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Employee Retention Tax Credit: Gray Areas And Red Flags
The subjective nature of the pandemic-prompted employee retention credit, coupled with a lack of Internal Revenue Service guidance, have created fertile ground for opportunists, so businesses seeking this tax benefit should be mindful of tax advisers who would involve them in fraudulent ERC claims, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.