Federal
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May 09, 2024
IRS Details Process For Suspending Tax Pro File Numbers
The IRS described a process Thursday for suspending authorization file numbers assigned to tax professionals pending further review because of possible identity theft or other fraud and said in a statement that the risks potentially compromised numbers pose for tax pros and taxpayers are a growing concern.
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May 09, 2024
Mich. Doctor Ordered To Stay In Jail Until Assets Repatriated
A Michigan doctor fighting accusations that he failed to report his foreign bank accounts will stay in jail, as a federal court declined to release him Thursday when he didn't comply with an order to deposit over $1 million to cover the judgment against him.
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May 09, 2024
Tax Interest Rates To Stay Same In 3rd Quarter
The Internal Revenue Service's interest rates for overpayments and underpayments of tax won't change in the third quarter of 2024, the agency said Thursday.
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May 09, 2024
Plumbing Co. Owner Cops To Tax Scheme Tied To Gold Bars
The co-owner of a Boston plumbing supply company pled guilty Thursday to underreporting his business and personal income, after prosecutors said he plowed some of the unreported receipts into $10 million worth of gold and silver bars.
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May 09, 2024
Treasury's Energy Tax Credit Regs Leave Room For 'Chaining'
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has said it is prohibiting the practice known as chaining that links two new ways to monetize clean energy tax credits, but recent final rules governing the two methods left the door open to possible exceptions.
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May 09, 2024
Biden Taps Housing Atty, 2 More For Tax Court
President Joe Biden nominated three attorneys Thursday to serve as judges on the U.S. Tax Court, including a housing attorney who specializes in federal low-income housing tax credits, a legislative counsel for the Joint Committee on Taxation and an IRS attorney.
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May 09, 2024
Pension Plans Want Witness Stopped In $2B Danish Dispute
U.S. pension plans accused by Denmark's tax authority of committing $2.1 billion in fraud against the European country by taking illegal refunds on dividends asked a New York federal court to reject the authority's request to depose a witness who pled guilty in Denmark.
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May 09, 2024
IRS Turning to Final PFIC Rules This Year, Official Says
The Internal Revenue Service expects to "begin in earnest" this year on final regulations for partnerships that hold stock in passive foreign investment companies, including guidance that would treat partnerships as an aggregate of their partners, an agency official said Thursday.
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May 09, 2024
Chamberlain Hrdlicka Rehires Tax Atty From Atlanta Boutique
Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry PC has rehired one of its former tax attorneys, who joins the firm in Atlanta after working at a tax law-focused boutique, the firm announced Wednesday.
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May 09, 2024
IRS Publishes Inflation-Adjusted HSA Amounts
The Internal Revenue Service issued the inflation-adjusted amounts Thursday for health savings accounts for 2025 as well as the maximum amount that may be made available for excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements.
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May 08, 2024
Fla. Man Owes $2.3M Tax For Late Mother's Estate, US Says
A Florida man spent millions of dollars on mortgage payments on his and his family members' properties using funds from his late mother's estate instead of paying the more than $2.3 million in taxes that the estate owed, the government said in its bid for an early win.
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May 08, 2024
Bill To Undo SEC Crypto Accounting Bulletin Passes House
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to overturn the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidance despite protests from Democrats to take a more targeted approach to amend the directive and a White House pledge to veto the bill.
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May 08, 2024
IRS May Float Disguised Sale Partnership Rules, Official Says
The Internal Revenue Service is considering "re-proposing" regulations that it withdrew in 2019 regarding the disguised sale of property to or by a partnership, an agency official said Wednesday.
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May 08, 2024
Top House Tax Writer Pushing Schumer For Tax Bill Vote
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith has urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring up the tax bill passed by the House in January, Smith said Wednesday, adding that the delay is jeopardizing the proposal's support.
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May 08, 2024
TCJA Extension Would Cost $4.6T, CBO Report Says
Extending the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for 10 years under a proposal from Republicans would increase the U.S. deficit by $4.6 trillion, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office after a request from Democratic senators.
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May 08, 2024
DOJ Says Man Owes $6.2M After Failing To Report Foreign Biz
A man owes tax penalties of $6.2 million to the U.S. after failing to disclose his ownership interests in two foreign entities from 1997 to 2004, the government told a California federal court Wednesday.
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May 08, 2024
Biz Groups Tell 10th Circ. Economic Substance Doesn't Apply
The economic substance doctrine doesn't apply when a business considers tax in making a choice between two legally permissible alternatives, two organizations told the Tenth Circuit in their briefs supporting Liberty Global's position in its $109 million tax refund bid.
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May 08, 2024
4th Circ. Asks If High Court Ruling Bars Credit Suisse Tipster
A Fourth Circuit panel questioned Wednesday whether a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prevented it from reviving a whistleblower case by a former Credit Suisse employee alleging the bank helped U.S. citizens evade taxes after paying a $2.6 billion criminal penalty.
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May 08, 2024
Auto Cos. Brace For EV Battery Compliance Hurdles
New federal regulations aimed at shoring up the domestic electric vehicle manufacturing supply chain give automakers a much-needed two-year cushion to navigate a compliance minefield, and to figure out how to reinvigorate the recent waning consumer demand for electric vehicles.
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May 08, 2024
Minn. Man Sentenced To Prison For Role In $6.7M Fraud
A Minnesota man was sentenced in federal court to 108 months in prison and told to pay more than $4.7 million in restitution for running a scheme that led to the filing of false tax returns that caused roughly $6.7 million in tax losses, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
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May 08, 2024
Ambulance Co.'s Former Owner Gets 6 Years For Tax Evasion
The former owner of an ambulance company was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for failing to pay employment taxes to the federal government and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service as it tried to collect, according to Virginia federal court documents.
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May 08, 2024
A Foley Hoag Co-Chair Joins Litigation Firm As Name Partner
Litigation and dispute resolution firm Elliott Kwok Levine & Jaroslaw LLP will operate under a new name after welcoming as its newest name partner a former federal prosecutor who most recently co-chaired Foley Hoag LLP's white-collar crime and government investigations practice.
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May 08, 2024
DOD Trucking Contractor Owner Indicted On $1M Tax Evasion
The owner of a trucking company that hauled military supplies for the U.S. Department of Defense tried to evade more than $1 million in taxes partly by using a nominee company headed by her former dispatcher, according to an indictment by a federal grand jury in Ohio.
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May 08, 2024
Offshore Drilling Co. Demands $70M Refund From IRS
The IRS wrongfully withheld $69.7 million in tax refunds to an offshore drilling company, despite acknowledging that the refunds are justified by net operating loss carrybacks authorized by a pandemic law and then promising to pay, the company said in Texas federal court.
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May 07, 2024
Biz Orgs. Ask 10th Circ. To Toss Economic Substance Ruling
The Tenth Circuit must not uphold a Colorado federal court's ruling that it didn't need to determine whether economic substance doctrine was relevant before disallowing an intercompany transaction by Liberty Global Inc., three business groups told the Tenth Circuit in briefs Tuesday.
Expert Analysis
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Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease
This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.
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Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand
If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.
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For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill
A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.
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Trump's NY Civil Fraud Trial Spotlights Long-Criticized Law
A New York court’s recent decision holding former President Donald Trump liable for fraud brought old criticisms of the state law used against him back into the limelight — including its strikingly broad scope and its major departures from the traditional elements of common law fraud, say Mark Kelley and Lois Ahn at MoloLamken.
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Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea
A proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure that would require parties to get court permission before filing federal amicus briefs would eliminate the long-standing practice of consent filing and thereby make the process less open and democratic, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation and DRI Center.
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4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best
As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.
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How IRA Unlocks Green Energy Investments For Tribes
An Inflation Reduction Act provision going into effect May 10 represents a critical juncture for Native American tribes, offering promising economic opportunity in green energy investment, but requiring a proactive and informed approach when taking advantage of newly available tax incentives, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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What To Know About IRS' New Jet Use Audit Campaign
The Internal Revenue Service recently announced plans to open several dozen audits scrutinizing executive use of company jets, so companies should be prepared to show the business reasons for travel, and how items like imputed income and deduction disallowance were calculated, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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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.