Federal
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June 18, 2024
Ore. To Adopt IRS' Free E-File Program For 2025 Season
Oregon will participate in the Internal Revenue Service's Direct File free online tax filing program when it returns for the 2025 filing season, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS announced Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
Corporate Rate Revenue To Decrease After 2025, CBO Says
Corporate income tax receipts will steadily decrease after 2025 in relation to gross domestic product due to expiration of many of the 2017 tax law's provisions, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report released Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
Tax Court Admonishes CPA For 'Unbecoming' Tax Positions
A U.S. Tax Court judge warned a certified public accountant who challenged his $23,000 tax bill that his groundless arguments could cost him a fine, saying in an opinion Tuesday that his tax positions "are unbecoming of a CPA."
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June 18, 2024
Mere Mention Of Setbacks Can't Nix Penalties, Tax Court Says
A Washington man who said he couldn't pay his taxes because he struggled to recover from financial setbacks during the pandemic didn't provide proof of his hardships, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday in upholding the government's collection of penalties against him.
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June 18, 2024
IRS Drops Two Research Credit Refund Claim Requirements
Taxpayers submitting refund claims that include the research credit no longer need to furnish the names of people who conducted each research project or the information each person tried to find with claims postmarked as of Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service announced.
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June 18, 2024
Former Tax Atty Hid Pension's $22.6M, Tax Court Says
A former attorney who promoted himself as an expert in employee stock ownership plans failed to report nearly $22.6 million in income related to his acquisition of a furniture company's overfunded pension plan, the U.S. Tax Court ruled.
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June 18, 2024
Life Insurance Fraudster Deserves Tax Penalties, 7th Circ. Told
The IRS urged the Seventh Circuit to maintain nearly $400,000 in fraud penalties assessed against an Illinois man who pled guilty to falsifying his tax returns as part of a scheme to poison his wife and collect on a $20 million life insurance policy.
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June 18, 2024
IRS Guidance Doesn't Perceive Spinoff Abuse, Official Says
Recent IRS guidance limiting the corporate spinoffs that revenue officials will approve as tax-free ahead of time was designed to reflect the drafters' current views, rather than suggest perceived abuse of these transactions, a U.S. Treasury Department official said Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
AbbVie Says IRS Can't Treat $1.6B Break Fee As Capital Loss
The Internal Revenue Service cannot reclassify as a capital loss a $1.6 billion payment AbbVie made to an Irish biotechnology company after their failed merger and thereby raise the pharmaceutical giant's tax bill by $572 million, the company's attorneys told the U.S. Tax Court.
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June 18, 2024
Applicable Federal Interest Rates To Fall In July
Applicable federal rates for income tax purposes will decrease in July, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday, reporting the first month-to-month drop since February.
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June 18, 2024
Treasury Finalizes Labor Rules For Bonus Energy Tax Credits
The U.S. Treasury Department released final labor rules Tuesday for clean energy projects seeking to significantly boost the value of their tax credits, emphasizing due diligence by developers and announcing that more IRS resources will go toward enforcement of the rules.
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June 17, 2024
$2.1B Danish Tax Fraud Defendant Pushes For Separate Trials
An attorney facing trial alongside his clients on allegations of filing $2.1 billion in fraudulent tax refund claims in Denmark urged a New York federal court to hear his case separately, saying disparate legal arguments could confuse a jury if only one trial is held.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Asks Court To Leave Alone Worker Retention Credit Pause
An Arizona federal court should reject a tax advisory firm's request to lift the IRS' moratorium on processing claims for the pandemic-era employee retention credit, the agency argued, saying the agency should be allowed to continue to run the program as it sees fit.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Correctly Assessed Md. Man's Deficiency, Tax Court Says
There were no genuine disputes of facts with the Internal Revenue Service's determination that a Maryland man had failed to file a return reporting nearly $255,000 in gross income, leading to a tax deficiency of more than $61,000, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Monday.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Issues Corp. Bond Monthly Yield Curve Guidance
The Internal Revenue Service published guidance Monday on the corporate bond monthly yield curve used in calculations for defined benefit plans as well as corresponding segment rates and other related provisions.
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June 17, 2024
Treasury Says Partnership Crackdown Could Raise Over $50B
A regulatory project to stop large, complex partnerships from using murky business structures to boost deductions and dodge taxes, an effort launched Monday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS, could ultimately raise over $50 billion in a decade, Treasury said.
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June 17, 2024
IRS Didn't Fully Solve All IT Issues, TIGTA Says
A review of planned corrective actions reported as closed by the Internal Revenue Service's information technology organization found one not fully implemented while another was not fully effective, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Monday.
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June 17, 2024
Feds Take Hard Line On Tycoon's Pilots After He Goes Free
Manhattan federal prosecutors asked a sentencing judge to consider aggravating circumstances for two pilots who allegedly traded on stock tips from U.K. billionaire Joe Lewis, despite not seeking a prison term for the private equity honcho and former soccer club owner.
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June 17, 2024
House Bill Seeks Tax Credit For Med Student Supervisors
Some licensed medical professionals who supervise medical and nursing students during clinical rotations would be entitled to a $1,000 tax credit under a bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House.
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June 17, 2024
Marathon Ineligible For $247M Fuel Tax Refund, IRS Says
Energy giant Marathon Petroleum isn't entitled to $247 million in tax refunds for its alternative fuel mixtures because its eligibility for the credits hadn't yet been approved by the Internal Revenue Service when it made the refund request, the agency told an Ohio federal court.
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June 14, 2024
Ga. CPA Admits To Role In $1.3B Tax Fraud Scheme
After a federal jury convicted two of his co-conspirators in a landmark conservation easement tax shelter trial last year, a Georgia accountant who'd previously denied culpability elected to change course Friday and plead guilty to two felony charges.
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June 14, 2024
5th Circ. Says Jury Instructions Deeply 'Flawed' In Tax Suit
A Fifth Circuit panel has found that the jury instructions for a $580,000 tax dispute were "irredeemably flawed," vacating the verdict and handing a loss to a partnership that claimed it had reasonable cause for its tax filing problems due to an employee's mental health issues.
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June 14, 2024
US Urges 5th Circ. To Back $2M Tax Bill For Tire Imports
The Fifth Circuit should overturn a lower court's ruling that a Houston truck company was not an importer responsible for nearly $2 million in excise taxes on tires it bought from a Chinese manufacturer, the U.S. told the Fifth Circuit on Friday.
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June 14, 2024
Eaton Says Court Improperly Required Int'l Employee Evals
An Ohio federal court should reconsider its decision that multinational power management company Eaton must disclose the personnel records of its foreign employees that were requested by the Internal Revenue Service in a transfer pricing investigation, the company told the court.
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June 14, 2024
The Tax Angle: More GOP TCJA Teams, Nonprofit Hospitals
From a look at efforts by the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee to prepare for next year's expiration of the 2017 tax overhaul law to a new call for nonprofit hospitals to provide more charity care, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few of the week's developing tax stories.
Expert Analysis
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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How FinCEN Proposal Expands RE Transaction Obligations
Against a regulatory backdrop foreshadowing anti-money laundering efforts in the real estate sector, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's proposed rule significantly expands reporting requirements for certain nonfinanced residential real estate transfers and necessitates careful review, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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What To Know About Employee Retention Credit Disclosures
Employers that filed potentially erroneous employee retention credit claims should take certain steps to determine whether the IRS’ voluntary disclosure program is a good fit and, if so, prepare a strong application before the window closes on March 22, say attorneys at Dentons.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Unpacking FinCEN's Proposed Real Estate Transaction Rule
Phil Jelsma and Ulrick Matsunaga at Crosbie Gliner take a close look at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recently proposed rulemaking — which mandates new disclosures for professionals involved in all-cash real estate deals — and discuss best next steps for the broad range of businesses that could be affected.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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The Corporate Transparency Act Isn't Dead Yet
After an Alabama federal court's ruling last week rendering the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional, changes to the law may ultimately be required, but ongoing compliance is still the best course of action for most, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.
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How New EU Tax And Transfer Pricing Rules May Affect M&A
Companies involved in mergers and acquisitions may need to adjust fiscal due diligence procedures to ensure they consider potential far-reaching effects of newly implemented transfer pricing measures, such as newly implemented global minimum tax and European Union anti-tax avoidance directives and proposals, says Patrick Tijhuis at BDO.
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Employers, Prep For Shorter Stock Awards Settlement Cycle
Companies that provide equity compensation in the form of publicly traded stock will soon have one less day to complete such transactions under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq rules — so employers should implement expedited equity compensation stock settlement and payroll tax deposit procedures now, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Demystifying IRS' Claims Of $851B Return On Investment
The IRS' recently released analysis, estimating a $851 billion return on the government’s $80 billion investment in the agency, represents a huge increase over its 2022 estimate and that of the Congressional Budget Office and may be best viewed as a best-case scenario, says Joyce Beebe at the Baker Institute.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.
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A Proposal For Fairer, More Efficient Innocent Spouse Relief
Adding a simple election to the current regulatory framework for innocent spouse claims would benefit both taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service by alleviating the undue burdens placed on those the program was intended to help and improving agency collections in such cases, says Laurie Kazenoff at Kazenoff Tax.
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7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves
As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.