Federal

  • October 02, 2024

    NY Man Posed As Exec To Steal $810K Tax Refund, Feds Say

    A New York man has been charged with intercepting an unnamed Connecticut investment firm's $810,337 tax refund and then impersonating an executive of the company to steal most of it.

  • October 02, 2024

    IRS Makes Progress On Retention Credit Fraud, TIGTA Says

    The IRS has made multiple improvements to address false claims for the COVID-19-era employee retention credit, including updating messaging and beefing up certain tax return filters to identify problematic claims, but there is still room for improvement, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Wednesday.

  • October 02, 2024

    9th Circ. Upholds 14 Years For Ex-Deputy's Tax, Fraud Crimes

    A former sheriff's deputy who was ordered to pay $7.6 million in restitution and sentenced to 14 years in prison for tax crimes and wire fraud lost his bid to vacate his sentence Wednesday when the Ninth Circuit decided he wasn't unfairly denied a new attorney.

  • October 02, 2024

    IRS Says European Energy Exchange Is A Qualified Exchange

    The European Energy Exchange is a qualified board or exchange for purposes of mark-to-market contracts under Internal Revenue Code Section 1256(g)(7)(C), the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday. 

  • October 02, 2024

    IRS Too Lax On Tax Prep Partners' Data Practices, TIGTA Says

    The IRS isn't doing enough to oversee the data protection practices of the tax preparation businesses in its Free File program and has never removed a partner from the program despite some having been sanctioned for unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Wednesday.

  • October 02, 2024

    US Seeks To Drop $1M Tax Suit Against Sleep Clinic Founder

    The U.S. government seeks to drop its case against a sleep clinic founder and his wife, whom it had accused of hiding assets, after the couple agreed to pay their tax liabilities in full, according to a filing in California federal court Wednesday.

  • October 01, 2024

    VP Nominees Vance, Walz Spar Over Tax Cuts

    Vice presidential candidates Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Mich., laid out their plans for federal tax cuts to create affordable housing and child care, spark new business growth and increase manufacturing during a nationally televised debate Tuesday night.

  • October 01, 2024

    IRS Delays Deadlines, Grants Other Relief Following Helene

    Taxpayers in all or part of seven states will have until May 1 to file individual and business tax returns and make payments after Hurricane Helene hit the area, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday, while also granting dyed diesel penalty relief as well.

  • October 01, 2024

    Tax Deadlines Extended For Victims Of Israel-Hamas War

    The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that it will postpone tax return and payment deadlines to Sept. 30, 2025, for those affected by the Israel-Hamas war across 2023 and 2024.

  • October 01, 2024

    Amgen Must Face Suit It Misled Investors On $10.7B Tax Bill

    Amgen lost an attempt to escape a potential class action claiming the pharmaceutical giant hid a $10.7 billion tax bill from investors after a New York federal court ruled there was sufficient evidence for the action to proceed.

  • October 01, 2024

    Ex-USTR Official Sees Possible Path Forward For Digital Taxes

    The U.S. may withhold trade threats if it believes countries are having good-faith conversations about concerns that their digital services taxes discriminate against U.S. businesses, including in current talks with Canada, the former general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative told Law360.

  • October 01, 2024

    Tax Court Upholds Man's Penalty For Frivolous Return

    The Internal Revenue Service did not abuse its discretion when it determined a California man was liable for a $5,000 penalty for filing a frivolous tax return and sustained a levy against him to collect the penalty, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday.

  • October 01, 2024

    High Court Urged To Let Stand IRS Win In Bankruptcy Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court should let stand a decision that late-filed returns prevented a taxpayer from discharging his federal tax debt in bankruptcy, the government argued, saying the taxpayer has inaccurately claimed that issues at the heart of his case have created a significant circuit split.

  • October 01, 2024

    Estate Exaggerating Value Of Exec's Tax Tipoff, DC Circ. Told

    A Dutch bank executive's estate is "vastly" overstating the significance of his tips to the IRS in seeking a whistleblower award for his reporting of tax schemes, the U.S. government told the D.C. Circuit, urging it to uphold the U.S. Tax Court's denial of the award.

  • October 01, 2024

    IRS Delays Tax Deadlines In Ill. After July Storms

    Taxpayers in seven Illinois counties will have until Feb. 3 to file individual and business tax returns and make payments after portions of the state were hit by severe storms and tornadoes in July, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.

  • September 30, 2024

    Biz Owner Gets 18 Months For Tax Fraud On $2.8M In Income

    The owner of a metal fabrication company who admitted to neglecting to report nearly $3 million in business income to the Internal Revenue Service was sentenced to 18 months in prison, according to Connecticut federal prosecutors.

  • September 30, 2024

    IRS Seeks Input On Draft Partnership Basis-Shifting Form

    The Internal Revenue Service asked for comments Monday on a draft form and instructions for partners to disclose all the property they receive from partnerships, part of upcoming regulations meant to target abusive tax avoidance that uses sophisticated partnership basis-shifting transactions.

  • September 30, 2024

    Ex-Jersey Shore Mayor Admits To Benefits Theft, Tax Crimes

    The former mayor of Wildwood, New Jersey, has admitted to unlawfully obtaining state health benefits, failing to disclose his outside employment and neglecting to report income from that job on state tax returns, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability announced Monday.

  • September 30, 2024

    Feds Seek Prison In Tax Case Linked To 'China Initiative'

    Prosecutors have asked a Texas federal judge for an 18- to 24-month prison sentence for a Chinese-born engineer who pled guilty to tax crimes after being charged with export violations and fraud in a case the defense claims began as an espionage investigation under the U.S. Department of Justice's now-disbanded "China Initiative."

  • September 30, 2024

    IRS Appeals Office Tests Group Mailbox For Large Cos.

    The Internal Revenue Service's Independent Office of Appeals announced Monday that it will test out a program intended to help enhance secure messaging for large businesses with multiple representatives by allowing them to request a group mailbox to communicate with their assigned Appeals employee.

  • September 30, 2024

    Supplement Co. Owes $1.3M Of Ex-Owner's Tax, US Says

    A health supplements company and its owners owe the federal government about $1.3 million in taxes stemming from the liabilities of the company's previous owner, the U.S. said in a complaint Monday in a Connecticut federal court.

  • September 30, 2024

    43K Issues In IRS Application Overdue For Fixes, TIGTA Says

    A review of two Internal Revenue Service system applications discovered that one had more than 43,000 vulnerabilities that were overdue for being patched, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in report released Monday. 

  • September 30, 2024

    IRS Grants Relief To Farmers Impacted By Drought

    The Internal Revenue Service granted tax relief Monday to qualified farmers and ranchers in 41 states and other regions that were forced to sell their livestock due to drought conditions, extending the time they have to replace their animals and still defer taxes on capital gains from selling.

  • September 29, 2024

    Hunter Biden's Tax Privacy Case Can Proceed, Judge Says

    Hunter Biden can move forward with his lawsuit against the federal government alleging the unauthorized disclosure of his tax return information by special agents and their attorneys who talked publicly about an investigation that culminated in Biden's copping to criminal tax charges, a D.C. federal judge ruled.

  • September 27, 2024

    Corporate Raider Accused Of Shirking $180M SEC Judgment

    Corporate takeover specialist Paul A. Bilzerian, accused of ducking a more than $180 million judgment owed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for decades, was indicted alongside his longtime accountant and his cannabis company on Thursday, California federal prosecutors said Friday.

Featured Stories

  • Stopgap Gov't Funding Law May Hinder IRS Improvements

    David van den Berg

    The IRS may need to redirect funds from its 2022 funding boost intended for agency improvements in order to cover routine operations, reducing funds available for planned upgrade projects, due to the stopgap appropriations bill Congress passed last week.

  • Ex-USTR Official Sees Possible Path Forward For Digital Taxes

    Natalie Olivo

    The U.S. may withhold trade threats if it believes countries are having good-faith conversations about concerns that their digital services taxes discriminate against U.S. businesses, including in current talks with Canada, the former general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative told Law360.

  • The Tax Angle: Pass-Through Tax Relief, Corporate Rate Cut

    Stephen K. Cooper

    From a look at GOP efforts to extend the tax deduction for pass-through businesses to former President Donald Trump's proposal to cut the corporate tax rate to 15%, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few of the week's developing tax stories.

Expert Analysis

  • The Trade And Tax Issues Behind US-Canada Digital Tax Clash

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    The new Canadian digital services tax recently went into effect despite objections from the U.S., a controversy that represents an unusual mix of trade and tax policy, and many companies have been pondering how it will affect their e-commerce businesses, says Damon Pike at BDO.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • A Look At How De Minimis Import Rules May Soon Change

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    The planned implementation of executive actions focused on the de minimis rule as it applies to shipments means companies should use this interval to evaluate the potential applicability and impact of Section 301, Section 201 or Section 232 duties on their products, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Ruling On Foreign Dividend Break Offers 2 Tax Court Insights

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    In Varian v. Commissioner, the U.S. Tax Court allowed a taxpayer's deduction for dividends from foreign subsidiaries, providing clarity on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision may affect challenges to Treasury regulations, and revealing a potential disallowance of foreign tax credits, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

  • Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners

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    Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics

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    Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.

  • It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers

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    Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.

  • Avoid Getting Burned By Agencies' Solar Financing Spotlight

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    Recently coordinated reports and advisories from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission maximize the spotlight on the consumer solar financing market and highlight pitfalls for lenders to avoid in this burgeoning field, says Mercedes Tunstall at Cadwalader.

  • Tax Traps In Acquisitions Of Financially Distressed Targets

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Parties to the acquisition of an insolvent or bankrupt company face myriad tax considerations, including limitations on using the distressed company's tax benefits, cancellation of indebtedness income, tax lien issues and potential tax reorganizations.

  • Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls

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    Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.