Federal
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January 29, 2025
Chippewa Lawyer Tells High Court His Income Isn't Taxable
An attorney who belongs to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision that said he owes taxes on self-employment income, saying no law expressly allows the federal taxation of income earned by Native Americans living on reservations.
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January 29, 2025
EU Will Keep Minimum Tax Despite US, Commissioner Says
The European Union will maintain a 15% minimum corporate tax rate on large companies despite the U.S. government's opposition to the global tax deal, a European commissioner said Wednesday.
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January 29, 2025
White House Rescinds Trump's Spending Freeze
The White House on Wednesday rescinded a directive freezing federal funding, saying it wants to end litigation and confusion, but said the move will not end a review of spending to ensure compliance with a series of executive orders by the president.
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January 29, 2025
11th Circ. Won't Take Back Up IRS Summons' Constitutionality
The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday declined to revisit its November decision rejecting a taxpayer's argument that an Internal Revenue Service summons violated his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
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January 28, 2025
Lobbying Is Not A Crime, Madigan Co-Defendant Tells Jury
An attorney for an ex-lobbyist standing trial on public corruption charges alongside former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan told jurors on Tuesday the government failed to establish that his client conspired to trade the ex-speaker's support for do-nothing jobs, saying all that really happened was "lobbying and politics."
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January 28, 2025
IRS Whistleblower Office Could Survive Trump Purge
As President Donald Trump pushes to slash federal spending and gut government agencies, the Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Office may remain largely unscathed since its recent efforts to efficiently reward and protect those who report illicit tax activity could align with the administration's goals.
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January 28, 2025
Amid Big Bets, Tom Goldstein Argued 'Poker Is Not Gambling'
A federal indictment's jarring portrayal of pioneering U.S. Supreme Court advocate Tom Goldstein as an "ultrahigh-stakes" gambler who dodged taxes has left the legal community virtually speechless. But Goldstein's status as a serious poker player was not a secret, and in past court cases, he proclaimed the card game "fundamentally dissimilar" from conventional gambling, even while preparing to wager millions on matches.
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January 28, 2025
Trump Pledges Tariffs On Semiconductors, Chips, Drugs
The U.S. will soon place tariffs on foreign-manufactured semiconductors, computer chips and pharmaceuticals in an effort to convince foreign companies to move their manufacturing operations stateside, President Donald Trump told House Republicans at a conference.
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January 28, 2025
Ukrainian Duo Get 15 Years In $25M Tax Fraud Case
A Florida federal judge sentenced two Ukrainian men to 15 years in prison after they pled guilty to laundering money from a hotel staffing scheme that the U.S. government said cost it $25 million in taxes.
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January 28, 2025
Miami Tax Biz's False Filings Case On Hold After Settlement
The U.S. Department of Justice and the owner of a Miami-based tax preparation business reached a settlement in a suit accusing her of filing fraudulent returns on behalf of clients, a Florida federal judge said Tuesday, administratively closing the case.
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January 28, 2025
Tax Group Of The Year: Cravath
Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP helped secure high-profile mergers and acquisitions for major media and communications companies in 2024, having played key roles in Paramount's $28 billion merger agreement with Skydance Media and a separate deal involving Verizon Communications, earning the law firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Tax Groups of the Year.
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January 28, 2025
Judge Temporarily Halts Trump's Funding Freeze
A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal spending that was set to go into effect at 5 p.m., as a group of nearly two dozen attorneys general filed a separate case challenging what they described as an illegal and potentially catastrophic move.
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January 28, 2025
Wealth Manager Cops To Funding Lifestyle With Client Money
A suburban Philadelphia investment adviser pled guilty in federal court Tuesday morning to charges that he stole more than $20 million of his clients' money, which he spent on international travel, country club dues, and a stake in a New Jersey mini golf course.
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January 27, 2025
Feds' Madigan Informant Is A 'Malignant Tumor,' Jury Told
An attorney for ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan took aim Monday at the former Chicago alderman called as the government's star witness in Madigan's criminal racketeering trial, calling him "a malignant tumor at the heart of this case" and urging jurors not to trust his testimony as they prepare to deliberate on his client's fate.
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January 27, 2025
Senate Confirms Bessent As Treasury Secretary
A bipartisan majority of senators voted Monday to confirm billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, putting in place a key member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet.
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January 27, 2025
Meet The Attys Surrounding Pa. Wealth Manager In Fraud Case
By the time Scott Mason and his company Rubicon Wealth Management were hit with criminal and regulatory enforcement claims alleging he stole $20 million from clients, the suburban Philadelphia wealth manager was already defending multiple civil lawsuits in Pennsylvania state court.
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January 27, 2025
SCOTUSblog Publisher Pleads Not Guilty To Tax Crimes
U.S. Supreme Court advocate and SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein pled not guilty in Maryland federal court on Monday to charges that he schemed to evade taxes and used funds from his boutique law firm to cover gambling debts.
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January 27, 2025
Tax Pro's Personal Returns Fair Game, 3rd Circ. Affirms
The Third Circuit upheld a Pennsylvania district court's conviction of a tax preparer for filing false returns on behalf of his clients, saying the court didn't make a mistake in allowing the government to submit the preparer's own false returns as evidence.
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January 24, 2025
Feds' Madigan Theory 'Doesn't Line Up,' His Atty Tells Jury
Counsel for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan told an Illinois federal jury Friday that prosecutors attempting to convict him of racketeering have painted an "incomplete and misleading" picture of a crooked politician at trial, but have failed to meet their burden to prove he ever acted with corrupt intent or engaged in a "this for that" exchange for his official action.
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January 24, 2025
Gov't Says Ukrainian Duo Should Get 15 Years For $25M Fraud
Prosecutors have asked a Florida federal court to sentence two Ukrainian men to 15½ years in prison after they pled guilty to laundering money from a hotel staffing scheme that the U.S. government said cost it $25 million in taxes.
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January 24, 2025
Tech Co. Founder Gets 2.5 Years In $14M Payroll Tax Case
A New Hampshire federal judge sentenced the founder of a technology startup to two and a half years in prison for failing to pay more than $14 million in employment and personal taxes, granting a request from prosecutors who said incarceration was the only meaningful sentence.
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January 24, 2025
GOP Sens. Propose Permanent Pass-Through Break
The 2017 federal tax law's pass-through deduction would be made permanent under legislation co-signed by more than half of the Senate's Republicans.
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January 24, 2025
IRS Says Athlete NIL Charity-Work Collective Not Tax-Exempt
An organization that pays college athletes from an unidentified university for the of use their names, images and likenesses in exchange for their participation in charity and educational events is not tax-exempt, the Internal Revenue Service said Friday.
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January 24, 2025
Law Students Scramble As Federal Gov't Yanks Job Offers
Law students across the country are scrambling to figure out their next steps after a range of federal agencies yanked job and internship offers this week because of the new hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration.
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January 24, 2025
House Bill Would Repeal Stock Buyback Tax
The excise tax on stock buybacks would be repealed under legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Expert Analysis
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So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?
Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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Legislation Most Likely To Pass In Lame Duck Session
As Congress begins its five-week post-election lame duck session, attorneys at Greenberg Traurig break down the legislative priorities and which proposals can be expected to pass.
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What Trump's 2nd Presidency Could Mean For Crypto Sector
Trump's second term will bring a fundamental shift from the Biden administration's approach to crypto-asset regulation and banking supervision, with the most significant changes likely taking effect in the first two quarters of 2025 and broader policy shifts emerging over the next year, say attorneys at Cahill.
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Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being
As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.
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Takeaways From The IRS' Crypto Doc Summons Win
A recent First Circuit decision holding that taxpayers do not have a Fourth Amendment reasonable expectation of privacy in cryptocurrency transaction records should prompt both taxpayers and exchanges to take stock of past transactions and future plans, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources
Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.
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Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.
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Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.
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The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO
The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.
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Tariffs' Economic Downsides Outweigh Potential Revenue
Import tariffs proposed by the campaign of former president Donald Trump would generate revenue like other taxes, but policymakers must consider the net-negative impact of associated consumer and downstream-industry costs, harm to exporters, potential foreign retaliation and reduction in economic output, says Erica York at the Tax Foundation.