Federal
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May 21, 2024
Senate Dems Float Tax-Advantaged Child Savings Accounts
Senate Democrats want to create tax-advantaged savings accounts to help children save from the time they are born, they said during a Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, but their Republican counterparts are unlikely to support proposals to create the accounts, claiming it would be too costly.
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May 21, 2024
Ways And Means Seeking Input On Possible TCJA Expiration
The House Ways and Means Committee is asking members of the public to share how increased taxes brought on by the possible expiration of the 2017 federal tax overhaul would impact them, the committee's Republican members said Tuesday.
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May 21, 2024
Valero Brings $37M Refund Claim Over Fuel Credit, Crude Tax
Energy company Valero is seeking $37 million in tax refunds for biomass fuel mixtures it said should've qualified for the alternative fuel tax credit and for claimed overpayments of crude tax, according to a complaint in Texas federal court.
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May 21, 2024
IRS Audit Selection Process May Introduce Bias, GAO Says
The Internal Revenue Service's process for auditing returns claiming refundable tax credits uses a measurement that may introduce unintentional bias against Black and low-income people into its automated selection system, according to a Government Accountability Office report made public Tuesday.
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May 21, 2024
Strategic Hiring Was The New Normal For BigLaw In 2023
The 400 largest law firms by headcount in the U.S. grew more slowly in 2023 than in the previous two years, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP surpassed the 3,000-attorney threshold, according to the latest Law360 ranking.
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May 21, 2024
The Law360 400: Tracking The Largest US Law Firms
The legal market expanded more tentatively in 2023 than in previous years amid a slowdown in demand for legal services, especially in transactions, an area that has been sluggish but is expected to quicken in the near future.
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May 20, 2024
Ex-IRS Agent, Five Others Sentenced In COVID Fraud Scheme
A former Internal Revenue Service agent, his brother and four other defendants have pled guilty to participating in a scheme that netted more than $3 million in fraudulent COVID-19 pandemic relief loans.
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May 20, 2024
Transparency Act Violates Constitution, Groups Tell 11th Circ.
The Corporate Transparency Act's reporting requirements violate the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination and other constitutional provisions, libertarian think tank Cato Institute and others said Monday in urging the Eleventh Circuit to uphold an Alabama district court's ruling against the law.
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May 20, 2024
Opportunity Zones Helped Restore Pa. City, House Panel Told
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's provisions, especially the law's opportunity zones aimed at boosting economic investment in distressed communities, have been integral in the economic restoration of Erie, Pennsylvania, panelists told the House Ways and Means Committee's tax policy subcommittee Monday.
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May 20, 2024
Lawmakers Ask IRS For Broader, Permanent Free E-File Plan
More than 135 Democratic and Independent members of Congress urged Internal Revenue Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a letter to expand the IRS' pilot program for free electronic tax return filing and make it permanent.
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May 20, 2024
2 House GOP Chairs Seek Study Of Premium Tax Credit Plan
The Republican chairmen of the House Ways and Means and Budget committees want the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation to study the impact of making the expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits permanent.
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May 20, 2024
IRS Guidance Plan Should Cover Corp. AMT, AICPA Says
The Internal Revenue Service should provide guidance on the definitions and applications of the 15% corporate alternative minimum tax, among other topics, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants said in comments published by the agency Monday.
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May 20, 2024
Domino's Franchisee Gets Year In Prison In $2.5M Tax Case
The owner of dozens of Domino's Pizza restaurants was sentenced to a year in prison Monday and ordered to pay $2.5 million to the Internal Revenue Service after having admitted he filed false tax returns, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
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May 20, 2024
Baker McKenzie Ends FOIA Suit Over IRS Partnership Audits
A Baker McKenzie attorney has dropped a public records lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service that sought to compel the agency to turn over documents pertaining to its scrutiny of large partnerships.
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May 20, 2024
Feds Fight Proposed Delay In Hunter Biden's Tax Trial
Hunter Biden shouldn't be allowed to delay his criminal tax trial in California just because his lead attorney says the dates run up against Biden's upcoming trial in Delaware on firearms charges, the special counsel's office told a federal court.
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May 20, 2024
House Dem Bill Would Let Education Savings Cover Transport
Students would be able to use tax-advantaged educational savings accounts to cover transportation and parking costs under a bill introduced by a pair of Democrats in the House of Representatives.
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May 20, 2024
US, Argentina To Carry Out 1st FATCA Info Exchange
The Internal Revenue Service approved cybersecurity measures by Argentina in a step that clears the way for the first automatic information exchange under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act between the two countries in September, Argentina's revenue service said Monday.
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May 17, 2024
Med Device Co. Allowed $160M In Deductions, Tax Court Told
A tax code provision in place before the 2017 federal tax overhaul changed it allows a medical device manufacturer to claim more than $160 million in deductions for dividends despite the government's attempt to apply the law retroactively, company counsel told the U.S. Tax Court on Friday.
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May 17, 2024
Home Distillers Tell Feds Ban Fails Under Spirit Of The Law
The Hobby Distillers Association said the federal government is exceeding its constitutional powers and treading on states' rights by banning homemade liquor under its taxing authority, as the group laid out its position Friday at the request of a Texas federal judge.
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May 17, 2024
Michigan Doctor Seeks Release From Contempt In FBAR Fight
A Michigan doctor incarcerated for civil contempt in a case in which he was ordered to repay more than $1 million in penalties for failure to report foreign accounts should be freed because he can no longer satisfy the terms of his release, he told a Michigan federal court.
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May 17, 2024
Koch-Tied Group Says Transparency Law Offends Federalism
The Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional because it does not regulate interstate commerce yet mandates that state-registered entities disclose personal information, a conservative group affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday.
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May 17, 2024
Feds Want Prison For Kiosk Salesman Who Faked Deductions
An electronic-sweepstakes kiosk salesman from Chicago should spend more than two years in prison for submitting false tax returns that fabricated more than $400,000 in business expenses and more than $60,000 in church donations, federal prosecutors told an Illinois federal court.
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May 17, 2024
New Domestic Content Guidance May Boost Energy Credits
The U.S. Treasury Department's new guidance on bonus tax credits for clean energy projects that source domestic-made materials and components aims to simplify the process for determining eligibility and spur more development to get those extra incentives.
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May 17, 2024
Funding Uncertainty Hasn't Affected Plans, IRS Official Says
Political uncertainty about the Internal Revenue Service's future funding hasn't affected the agency's operations planning, the agency's deputy commissioner said Friday at a Tax Council Policy Institute conference in Washington, D.C.
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May 17, 2024
Transfer Pricing Deal Needed For Pillar 1, OECD Official Says
It's crucial for countries to agree on transfer pricing policies under an international profit reallocation agreement known as Pillar One as they work toward their end-of-June deadline to sign a related multilateral treaty, an OECD official said Friday.
Expert Analysis
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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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Business Litigators Have 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.
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Proposed Hydrogen Tax Credit Regs May Be Legally Flawed
While the recently proposed regulations for the new clean hydrogen production tax credit have been lauded by some in the environmental community, it is unclear whether they are sufficiently grounded in law, result from valid rulemaking processes, or accord with other administrative law principles, say Hunter Johnston and Steven Dixon at Steptoe.