Federal
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April 24, 2025
Silicon Valley Bank Liquidators Fight $41M Bill In Tax Court
The trust responsible for liquidating assets of the shuttered Silicon Valley Bank told the U.S. Tax Court that the IRS has wrongly charged the bank's operator more than $41 million in additional taxes by claiming it didn't substantiate losses and research activities in the years leading up to its bankruptcy.
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April 24, 2025
Think Tank Says Tariffs Hit Lower-Income Workers Hardest
President Donald Trump's tariffs currently being collected disproportionately harm lower- and middle-income earners in the U.S., according to an updated study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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April 24, 2025
Tax Cos. Head To 9th Circ. Over IRS Worker Credit Denials
Two tax assistance companies are appealing to the Ninth Circuit an Arizona federal court ruling denying their request to stop the IRS from issuing batch denials of thousands of pandemic-era worker credit claims, including those filed by their clients.
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April 24, 2025
Firm Fights IRS' $33M Boost To Self-Employment Income
The Internal Revenue Service wrongly subjected nearly $33 million of a New York investment firm's income to self-employment taxes by disqualifying the firm's limited partners and taxing their distributions, it alleged in two U.S. Tax Court petitions.
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April 23, 2025
NY, 11 Other States Sue Trump Administration To Block Tariffs
A dozen states are seeking to block tariffs the Trump administration imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, claiming in a lawsuit Wednesday the tariffs illegally constitute unprecedented tax hikes on Americans and violate constitutional separations of powers
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April 23, 2025
TurboTax Maker Fends Off H&R Block's False Ad Claims
A California federal judge tossed H&R Block's claims that competing tax-preparation company Intuit duped its customers into buying its TurboTax product by falsely claiming an expert would review returns, saying H&R Block failed to show the expert review feature influenced customers' purchasing decisions.
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April 23, 2025
11th Circ. Denies Couple's Medical, Business Deductions
The Eleventh Circuit rejected Wednesday numerous tax deductions that a couple had claimed for business and medical expenses, affirming the U.S. Tax Court's position that the pair failed to provide enough supporting documents to take advantage of the perks.
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April 23, 2025
Trump Says 145% Tariffs On China Will Fall Significantly
The U.S.' tariffs on China will end up nowhere near 145%, the current level for most Chinese goods, but they will not go away entirely, President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office.
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April 23, 2025
SCOTUSblog Sold Amid Goldstein's Criminal Case
SCOTUSblog has been sold to digital media company The Dispatch, according to announcements from both publications Wednesday, marking a new chapter for the U.S. Supreme Court-focused legal publication while its co-founder Tom Goldstein faces criminal charges.
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April 23, 2025
Eaton Allowed To Redact Employee Docs Before Court Review
Eaton Corp. may redact information about employees' religion and sexual orientation from performance reviews before the court examines them privately in chambers in the company's transfer pricing dispute, an Ohio federal court ruled in a move the government had warned would flout a Sixth Circuit order.
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April 23, 2025
US Tariffs Will Slow Global Economic Growth, IMF Says
The "abrupt increase" in U.S. tariffs has resulted in countermeasures and uncertainty that will significantly slow global economic growth, according to a report from the International Monetary Fund.
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April 23, 2025
US Expatriations Doubled In 1st Quarter, IRS Says
The number of people who expatriated from the U.S. more than doubled during the first quarter of the year compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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April 22, 2025
Tax Court Grants Partial Relief For Ex-Husband's Errors
The U.S. Tax Court granted partial relief Tuesday to an Ohio woman who requested relief from income tax obligations stemming from returns she filed with her former spouse from 2015 through 2018.
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April 22, 2025
Couple With $2.9M Tax Bill Ignored Tardiness, 2nd Circ. Says
A Connecticut couple must pay $2.9 million in tax liabilities, the Second Circuit affirmed Tuesday, saying they failed to address a lower court finding that they introduced evidence challenging their debt too late.
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April 22, 2025
Montana Farmers Union Asks To Join Tribe's Anti-Tariff Suit
The Montana Farmers Union wants to be included in a suit filed by members of the Blackfeet Nation challenging President Trump's tariffs on imports from Canada and abroad, arguing that the duties under scrutiny hurt the state's farmers the same way they hurt tribal members.
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April 22, 2025
Trucker Failed To Prove $32K In Expenses, Tax Court Affirms
The Internal Revenue Service correctly disallowed over $32,000 in car and truck expenses claimed by a Pennsylvania truck driver, the U.S. Tax Court determined Tuesday, agreeing with the IRS that he failed to provide any documentation backing up his claims.
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April 22, 2025
Investor's Suit On Russian Bank Shares Dismissed As Repeat
The Federal Claims Court tossed an investor's suit accusing the U.S. government of wrongly blocking him from gaining access to his shares held by a Russian-owned bank amid the country's invasion of Ukraine, saying the suit was barred because he had previously made the claims and failed.
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April 22, 2025
Vance Says US, India Finalized Guidelines For Trade Talks
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. Vice President JD Vance have finalized the terms of reference for trade negotiations aimed at doubling bilateral trade by 2030, Vance said Tuesday.
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April 21, 2025
Churches Say Nonprofit Politics Ban Violates Speech Rights
A group of churches and Christian advocacy groups asked a Texas federal court Monday to find that a provision of the Internal Revenue Code that prevents tax-exempt nonprofits from endorsing political candidates is unconstitutional because it violates their free speech rights.
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April 21, 2025
Harvard Sues Trump Admin Over $2B Funding Freeze
Harvard University on Monday hit the Trump administration with a suit in Massachusetts federal court, escalating a high-profile battle after the government slashed more than $2 billion in funding amid allegations the elite school has failed to properly address antisemitism on its campus.
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April 21, 2025
US, Italy Say Tech Cos. Must Not Face Discriminatory Taxes
Italy and the U.S. agree that discrimination tech companies face in the form of digital services taxes must end in order to enable investments from those companies, according to a joint statement by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Donald Trump.
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April 21, 2025
US Asks 4th Circ. To Pause Review Of Corp. Transparency Act
The U.S. government urged the Fourth Circuit to pause a challenge brought by community associations against an information disclosure law aimed at small businesses, arguing that the U.S. Treasury Department's newly narrowed rules could moot the claims.
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April 21, 2025
Unions Score Block On Orders To Fire Probationary Workers
A California federal judge blocked the Office of Personnel Management from ordering federal agencies to fire probationary employees and stopped several agencies from heeding its directives, but he declined to order them to rehire the workers they've already let go.
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April 21, 2025
Former Ohio Atty Gets Prison Over Unpaid Payroll Taxes
A former Ohio attorney who admitted that he failed to pay $750,000 in payroll taxes while managing his wife's dental practice has been sentenced to six months in prison after telling a federal judge that he did not intend to steal from the government, according to an order signed Monday.
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April 21, 2025
Eateries Owner Gets 3 Years For Tax, COVID Fraud
A restaurant owner who committed tax crimes and illegally collected more than $1.7 million in pandemic relief money was sentenced to more than three years in prison by a California federal judge, a fraction of the sentence urged by prosecutors who pointed to millions in cash hidden in his bedroom.
Judge Likely To Block Trump Collective-Bargaining Ban
A D.C. federal judge appeared ready on Wednesday to block President Donald Trump's executive order threatening to strip as many as 100,000 federal employees of their collective bargaining power, saying the order seems to target unions because they've challenged his actions, not because of any purported national security justification.
Justices Struggle To Grasp IRS Determination To Collect Debt
U.S. Supreme Court justices struggled Tuesday to understand the significance of an IRS determination that compelled a woman to continue litigating a 2010 tax debt that the agency zeroed out while her suit in Tax Court was pending over the determination that she still owed taxes.
Justices Pass On Fla. Man's Taking Claims From Tax Sale
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a man's claims that a Florida county's foreclosure sale of his home for an amount equal to his back taxes, interest and penalties without paying him a surplus resulted in an unconstitutional taking of property.
Judge Likely To Block Trump Collective-Bargaining Ban
A D.C. federal judge appeared ready on Wednesday to block President Donald Trump's executive order threatening to strip as many as 100,000 federal employees of their collective bargaining power, saying the order seems to target unions because they've challenged his actions, not because of any purported national security justification.
Justices Struggle To Grasp IRS Determination To Collect Debt
U.S. Supreme Court justices struggled Tuesday to understand the significance of an IRS determination that compelled a woman to continue litigating a 2010 tax debt that the agency zeroed out while her suit in Tax Court was pending over the determination that she still owed taxes.
Justices Pass On Fla. Man's Taking Claims From Tax Sale
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a man's claims that a Florida county's foreclosure sale of his home for an amount equal to his back taxes, interest and penalties without paying him a surplus resulted in an unconstitutional taking of property.
Featured Stories
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Bill To Ax Church Politics Ban Reignites Free-Speech Debate
More than a dozen congressional Republicans support what they characterize as free-speech legislation to overturn a 1954 tax law barring churches from endorsing candidates, despite warnings from some lawmakers and others that it could weaken church-state separation and flood politics with a new source of dark money.
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Trump's Tariff Reprieves Buy Lawyers Time To Strategize
President Donald Trump's expanded tariff exclusion for electronic goods from China and the pause on higher rates for all countries except China gives lawyers an opportunity to seek mitigation solutions for importers, but the moves do little to create long-term business certainty.
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IRS-ICE Info Pact Lacks Needed Safeguards, Experts Say
The IRS recently agreed to share confidential tax return data with immigration enforcement agencies for criminal proceedings, saying the agreement complied with privacy laws, but tax and privacy experts said they had concerns that the deal was vague and lacked safeguards to ensure the information is lawfully used.
Expert Analysis
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10 Arbitrations And A 5th Circ. Ruling Flag Arb. Clause Risks
The ongoing arbitral saga of Sullivan v. Feldman, which has engendered proceedings before 10 different arbitrators in Texas and Louisiana along with last month's Fifth Circuit opinion, showcases both the risks and limitations of arbitration clauses in retainer agreements for resolving attorney-client disputes, says Christopher Blazejewski at Sherin and Lodgen.
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Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
The first quarter of 2025 was filled with the refinement of old theories in the property and casualty space, including in vehicle valuation, time to seek appraisal and materials depreciation, says Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.
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The Benefits Of Aligning States On Legal Paraprofessionals
Texas' proposal to become the latest state to license paraprofessional providers of limited legal services could help firms expand their reach and improve access to justice, but consumers, attorneys and allied legal professionals would benefit even more if similar programs across the country become more uniform, says Michael Houlberg at the University of Denver.
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10 Soft Skills Every GC Should Master
As businesses face shifting regulatory and technological uncertainty, general counsel will need to strengthen certain soft skills to succeed, from admitting when they make a mistake to maintaining a healthy dose of dispassion, says Douglas Brown at Manatt.
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An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future
Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.
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Tracking The Evolution In Litigation Finance
Despite continued innovation, litigation finance remains an immature market with borrowers recieving significantly different terms as lenders learn to value cases, which firms need a strong handle on to ensure lending terms do not overwhelm collateral value, says Robert Wilkins at Lightfoot Franklin.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: The Perils Of Digital Data Protocols
Though stipulated protocols governing the treatment of electronically stored information in litigation are meant to streamline discovery, recent disputes demonstrate that certain missteps in the process can lead to significant inefficiencies, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Maximizing Exemptions Before TCJA Rides Into The Sunset
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Individuals with taxable estates can optimize the benefits of estate planning strategies like spousal lifetime access trusts by setting them up before increases in estate and gift tax exemptions under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sunset in January, say attorneys at Katten.
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A Cold War-Era History Lesson On Due Process
The landmark Harry Bridges case from the mid-20th century Red Scare offers important insights on why lawyers must be free of government reprisal, no matter who their client is, says Peter Afrasiabi at One LLP.
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How BigLaw Executive Orders May Affect Smaller Firms
Because of the types of cases they take on, solo practitioners, small law firms and public interest attorneys may find themselves more dramatically affected by the collective impact of recent government action involving the legal industry than even the BigLaw firms named in the executive orders, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Lawsuits Shouldn't Be Shadow Assets For Foreign Capital
Third-party litigation financing amplifies inefficiencies from litigation and facilitates national exposure to foreign influence in the U.S. justice system, so full disclosure of financing arrangements should be required as a matter of institutional integrity, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
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How To Accelerate Your Post-Attorney Career Transition
Professionals seeking to transition to nonattorney careers may encounter skepticism as nontraditional candidates, but there are opportunities for thought leadership and to leverage speaking and writing to accelerate a post-attorney career transition, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Evgeny Efremkin at Toronto Metropolitan University.
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Tariffs And FCA Create Perfect Storm For Importers
The Trump administration's aggressive tariff policies pose a high risk to certain importation practices that are particularly likely to trigger False Claims Act enforcement, say attorneys at Jeffer Mangels.