Federal

  • May 27, 2025

    Trump To Pardon 'Chrisley' Stars Convicted Of Tax Evasion

    President Donald Trump is planning to pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, the Georgia duo sentenced to prison after being convicted of running a yearslong bank fraud scheme and dodging federal taxes, according to a post Tuesday on X by Trump's communications adviser.

  • May 27, 2025

    Ariz. Asks Justices To Skip Tax Fight Over Plant On Tribe Land

    Arizona's tax agency urged the U.S. Supreme Court to pass on a power company's claims that property taxes were illegally levied on a power plant it owns on tribal land, saying the justices have consistently upheld taxes on tribal reservations that solely fall on non-Native Americans.

  • May 27, 2025

    Crypto Exec's IRS Privacy Appeal Tossed By 5th Circ.

    A cryptocurrency executive who sought to quash IRS summonses for his bank records must wait at least until the U.S. government decides whether to bring legal proceedings against him before he can appeal a ruling denying his request to block the agency's demands, the Fifth Circuit said Tuesday.

  • May 27, 2025

    Novelist Facing FBAR Penalties Says She Relied On CPAs

    A California-based Japanese novelist should not have to face $715,000 in penalties for unreported Swiss bank accounts, she told a federal court, contending that any nondisclosure was the result of an honest misunderstanding shared by her certified public accountants.

  • May 27, 2025

    ER Doc Can't Deduct His Film Co.'s Costs, 9th Circ. Says

    An emergency room doctor is not entitled to more than $100,000 in business deductions for his film production company because he didn't operate it to make a profit, the Ninth Circuit found, affirming the U.S. Tax Court's denial of the tax breaks.

  • May 27, 2025

    Fla. Biz Owner Missed Tax Appeal Deadline, 11th Circ. Told

    The owner of a Florida marketing business who failed to report millions of dollars in income to the Internal Revenue Service missed the deadline to appeal U.S. Tax Court rulings sustaining the related taxes, the U.S. government told the Eleventh Circuit.

  • May 23, 2025

    Law360 Reveals Titans Of The Plaintiffs Bar

    This past year, a handful of attorneys secured billions of dollars in settlements and judgments for both classes and individual plaintiffs against massive companies and organizations like Facebook, Dell, the National Association of Realtors, Johnson & Johnson, UFC and Credit Suisse, earning them recognition as Law360's Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar for 2025.

  • May 23, 2025

    Trade Court Says Wis. Man Can't Sue Over Trump Tariffs

    The U.S. Court of International Trade dismissed a Wisconsin resident's case against President Donald Trump's tariffs Friday, holding that the man's allegations of economic injury are too speculative to create standing to sue.

  • May 23, 2025

    Judge Extends Block On Trump's Government Layoffs

    A California federal judge has extended her block of President Donald Trump's executive order directing layoffs at federal agencies, saying a coalition of unions, nonprofits and cities has shown it is likely to succeed in showing the order exceeded the president's authority.

  • May 23, 2025

    Staffing Co. Owner Gets 8 Years For $60M Payroll Tax Fraud

    The owner of California staffing companies who admitted to a long-running payroll tax fraud that caused roughly $60 million in tax losses was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $38 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.

  • May 23, 2025

    IRS Urged To Use Past Audits To Refine AI Tax Models

    The Internal Revenue Service should use historical examination results to monitor and improve the agency's AI models when possible, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report released Friday.

  • May 23, 2025

    IRS Should Clarify Tax-Exempt Hospital Rules, TIGTA Says

    The Internal Revenue Service needs to update its guidance for tax-exempt hospitals to improve oversight, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report released Friday, adding that the guidance for the community benefit standard is vague and outdated.

  • May 23, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Troutman, A&O Shearman

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Blackstone acquires TXNM Energy, OpenAI buys io Products, Lumen Technologies sells its Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home business in 11 states to AT&T, and AMD sells its data center infrastructure manufacturing business to Sanmina.

  • May 23, 2025

    House Budget Would Sap Emerging Energy Tax Credit Market

    The House's sweeping tax and budget legislation would scrap a relatively new financing option that lets project development owners sell valuable green energy tax credits for cash, which would likely doom or severely hamper the burgeoning market for the credits.

  • May 23, 2025

    IRS Updates Electricity Credit Reference Price For Wind

    The Internal Revenue Service released a 2025 reference price Friday for determining the availability of the renewable electricity production credit for wind energy facilities.

  • May 23, 2025

    Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin

    The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, included updated domestic asset/liability and yields percentages for 2024 that foreign insurance companies need to compute their minimum effectively connected net investment income.

  • May 22, 2025

    Critics Decry Budget Bill As Clean Energy 'Attempted Murder'

    The budget reconciliation bill that House Republicans passed Thursday replaced an earlier plan to phase out renewable energy tax credits with a 60-day qualification period, leaving project developers struggling to meet a deadline experts say is unrealistic and effectively guts the benefit.

  • May 22, 2025

    Fla. Can't End Tech Groups' Challenge To Social Media Law

    A Florida federal judge on Thursday denied the state's motion to dismiss a complaint brought by technology groups challenging a Florida law restricting social media companies from blocking political candidates, ruling that the plaintiffs have standing to sue on behalf of their members.

  • May 22, 2025

    Calif. Judge Likely To Extend Block On Gov't Reorg, Job Cuts

    A California federal judge indicated Thursday she'll likely convert her temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump's executive order to reduce the federal workforce, saying the law "seems clear" that presidents cannot issue large-scale agency reductions without congressional approval and "to hold otherwise" would contradict nine previous presidents and 21 congresses.

  • May 22, 2025

    Tax Court Backs IRS In Multibillion-Dollar Facebook Clash

    The U.S. Tax Court largely sided with the IRS on Thursday in a multibillion-dollar tax dispute with Facebook, upholding the agency's approach for valuing the company's intangible property but finding it applied the wrong data points in its analysis.

  • May 22, 2025

    Agreement Reached In Lawsuits Over H&R Block Data Breach

    H&R Block has reached an agreement with customers who sued the company in separate class actions over a data breach that affected 23,000 people, according to a Missouri federal court.

  • May 22, 2025

    Lodge's Owners Can't Claim Loss, Tax Court Says

    The owners of an Oregon lodge that was condemned and never opened for guests may not take tax deductions related to $5 million in claimed business losses, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Thursday, saying their involvement didn't count as operating a business.

  • May 22, 2025

    Another Tariff Suit In Trade Court Signals Joint Review

    The legal strategy of utilizing U.S. district courts to challenge President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs suffered another blow this week following a failure to keep a stationery company's suit in Florida federal court, leaving stakeholders to anticipate that similar cases will be consolidated for further review.

  • May 22, 2025

    6th Circ. Won't Rethink Denial Of $268M Excise Tax Break

    The Sixth Circuit won't reconsider its ruling against a Tennessee truck company seeking a $268 million break on excise taxes, letting stand its stance that the company's refurbished tractors may not qualify because they might have previously been sold to tax-exempt buyers.

  • May 22, 2025

    House Republicans Send Trump's $3.8T Budget Bill To Senate

    The U.S. House of Representatives voted along party lines early Thursday to approve a $3.8 trillion bill to extend and make permanent the Republican Party's 2017 tax overhaul law, clearing the measure for Senate consideration by July 4.

Expert Analysis

  • Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team

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    In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.

  • Justices May Find Gov't Can Keep Fraudulent Transfer Benefit

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    Based on the justices' questions at the recently argued U.S. v. Miller, the Supreme Court appears prepared to hold that the U.S. — unlike any other creditor — is permitted to retain the benefits of a fraudulent transfer to the detriment of other bankruptcy creditors, says Kevin Morse at Clark Hill.

  • Tax Court Should Update Framework For Defining Insurance

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    ​​​​​​​The U.S. Tax Court's unnecessary determination in Royalty Management Insurance v. Commissioner that a fraudulent transaction did not contain the hallmarks of a legitimate insurance transaction applies an outdated analysis that threatens the captive insurance sector and illustrates the need for a more modern framework to define true insurance, says Matthew Queen at the Queen Firm.

  • When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US

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    As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Impact Of Corporate Transparency Act Ambiguity On Banks

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    Even though banks generally needn't file beneficial ownership information reports, financial institutions must continue to monitor the status of the Corporate Transparency Act and understand its requirements in case the nationwide injunction that was issued against the CTA earlier this month is overturned, say attorneys at Armstrong Teasdale.

  • 6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School

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    Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Congress Should Expand Investment Options For 403(b)s

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    Lawmakers should pass pending legislation to give 403(b) plan participants access to collective investment trusts, leveling the playing field for public sector retirement investors by giving them an investment option their private sector counterparts have had for decades, says Jason Levy at Great Gray Trust Company.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review

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    For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Rank-And-File DOJ Attorneys Will Keep Calm And Carry On

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    Career prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice often pride themselves on their ability to remain apolitical in order to ensure consistency and keep the department’s mission afloat, and the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to upend this tradition, says Michael Landman at Bird Marella.

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