Federal

  • December 05, 2024

    Tax Court Penalizes Mail Carrier For Frivolous Returns

    A retired U.S. Postal Service carrier from Texas owes $10,000 in civil penalties for making frivolous claims that his income wasn't subject to taxes because he wasn't a federal employee, the U.S. Tax Court ruled in a bench opinion released Thursday.

  • December 05, 2024

    IRS Issues Latest Required Retirement Plan Amendments List

    The Internal Revenue Service released Thursday the 2024 edition of an annual list of required amendments for qualifying individually designed retirement plans.

  • December 05, 2024

    IRS Approved Late Workers' Comp. Payments, TIGTA Says

    The Internal Revenue Service approved workers' compensation claims from agency employees that should have been barred because they were filed late, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Thursday in a report that called for improvements to the agency's approval process.

  • December 05, 2024

    Texas Paving Co. Drops Suit Over $686K Carryback Refund

    A Texas contracting company voluntarily dropped its case seeking a $686,000 tax refund, plus interest, from the Internal Revenue Service for a carryback operating loss.

  • December 05, 2024

    IRS Errors Allow Millions In Improper Refunds, TIGTA Says

    Tax overpayments aren't being applied to outstanding debt in taxpayer accounts because of procedural and programming errors at the Internal Revenue Service that allow millions of dollars to be improperly refunded to taxpayers, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Thursday.

  • December 05, 2024

    Senate Finance Committee Advances IRS Watchdog Pick

    The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday advanced President Joe Biden's nomination of a former assistant inspector general at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to serve as the top IRS watchdog.

  • December 05, 2024

    Whistleblower Asks DC Circ. To Strike Tax Court Judge Shield

    A man whose whistleblower claim was blocked by the IRS for being too late asked the D.C. Circuit to reject a second U.S. Tax Court decision to uphold the denial, saying, among other things, that Tax Court judges have unconstitutional job protection.

  • December 04, 2024

    GAO Finds Limited Oversight, Data On Crypto In 401(k)s

    Though crypto assets make up a small part of the 401(k) market, their limited federal oversight might leave workers responsible for monitoring the volatile investment options, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

  • December 04, 2024

    Trump Picks Ex-Congressman For IRS Commissioner

    President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he has tapped a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives to lead the Internal Revenue Service during his coming second term.

  • December 04, 2024

    Senate Finance Committee Schedules Vote On TIGTA Nominee

    The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a vote Thursday on the nomination of David Samuel Johnson as the inspector general for tax administration, committee Chairman Ron Wyden announced Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    Ending Trump Tax Cuts Would Have Neutral Effect, CBO Says

    Allowing the individual income tax cuts enacted under President Donald Trump's 2017 tax overhaul to expire at the end of next year as planned won't have a significant effect on the economy over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    IRS Warns Of Rising Charitable Contribution Scams

    The Internal Revenue Service warned taxpayers Wednesday of an uptick in fraud schemes involving donations of ownership interests in closely held businesses, a scam that usually targets wealthier people.

  • December 04, 2024

    IRS Seeks Electronic Tax Committee Membership Applications

    The Internal Revenue Service is accepting applications until the end of January to join its Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee, the agency announced Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    Retired Professor Says He Didn't Waive Rights In FBAR Fight

    An 86-year-old former professor told a California federal court that he raised his Eighth Amendment rights against excessive fines when defending himself against a $545,000 penalty for failing to report foreign bank accounts, disputing arguments by the U.S. government that he had waived those rights.

  • December 04, 2024

    Trump Taps Former Treasury Aide For Deputy Secretary

    A former assistant Treasury secretary during President-elect Donald Trump's first term has been tapped to serve as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury during Trump's coming second term, the president-elect announced Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    Treasury Finalizes Broad Energy Investment Tax Credit Regs

    The U.S. Treasury Department released final regulations Wednesday for the clean energy investment tax credit, which includes notable changes to the proposed energy property definition to include functional components in calculating the incentive's value, such as a biogas facility's upgrading equipment.

  • December 04, 2024

    Reed Smith Adds State Tax Partner To San Francisco Office

    Reed Smith LLP added a partner to its national state tax practice who will work out of its San Francisco office, according to the firm.

  • December 04, 2024

    US Drops 9th Circ. Bid To Revive Bad Debt Fraud Penalties

    The federal government agreed to stop challenging a U.S. Tax Court decision that found a businessman didn't owe fraud penalties even though he improperly took a multimillion-dollar bad debt deduction for loans he made to his companies, according to a Ninth Circuit filing.

  • December 04, 2024

    IRS Cancels Hearing On Tax Payments With Cards

    The Internal Revenue Service will not be holding its scheduled meeting Friday on proposed regulations that would allow taxpayers to make payments using credit and debit cards directly with the agency instead of through a third party, it said Wednesday.

  • December 03, 2024

    Hunter Biden's Gun, Tax Cases Axed After Presidential Pardon

    Federal judges in Delaware and California on Tuesday closed the books on Hunter Biden's felony gun and tax evasion cases, just ahead of his sentencing hearings, after President Joe Biden issued a sweeping pardon of his son over the weekend.

  • December 03, 2024

    Texas Judge Blocks 'Quasi-Orwellian' Anti-Laundering Law

    A Texas federal judge on Tuesday halted the Biden administration's roll-out of new reporting requirements aimed at unmasking anonymous shell companies, granting a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by business interests challenging their constitutionality.

  • December 03, 2024

    Ex-Braves Blast Tax Court's 'Disregard' In Easement Fight

    Two former Atlanta Braves players penalized for allegedly overstating the value of a conservation easement donation urged the Eleventh Circuit to toss the costly ruling against them, saying the U.S. Tax Court's decision showed "blatant disregard" for the appeal court's precedent in deciding the matter.

  • December 03, 2024

    Fried Frank Adds Goodwin Procter Tax Pro As Partner In NY

    Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP announced Tuesday that a Goodwin Procter LLP tax and business law partner has joined the firm and will serve as a partner in Fried Frank's tax department in New York.

  • December 03, 2024

    'Bitcoin Jesus' Calls $48M Tax Dodging Case Unconstitutional

    An early Bitcoin investor known as Bitcoin Jesus asked a California federal judge Tuesday to dismiss charges that he dodged approximately $48 million in taxes by filing false tax returns and concealing how much cryptocurrency he owned, arguing that the charges are unconstitutional.

  • December 03, 2024

    Exelon Asks For Corp. AMT To Account For Repairs Deduction

    Power companies should be allowed to account for an industry-specific tax deduction on repair costs to determine whether they're subject to the corporate alternative minimum tax, utility giant Exelon said in a comment letter to the U.S. Treasury Department released Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • After Chevron: Uniform Tax Law Interpretation Not Guaranteed

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    The loss of Chevron deference will significantly alter the relationship between the IRS, courts and Congress when it comes to tax law, potentially precipitating more transparent rulemaking, but also provoking greater uncertainty due to variability in judicial interpretation, say Michelle Levin and Carneil Wilson at Dentons.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • A Tale Of 2 Trump Cases: The Rule Of Law Is A Live Issue

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week in Trump v. U.S., holding that former President Donald Trump has broad immunity from prosecution, undercuts the rule of law, while the former president’s New York hush money conviction vindicates it in eight key ways, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • Tracking Implementation Of IRA Programs As Election Nears

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    As the Biden administration races to cement key regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, a number of the law's programs and incentives are at risk of delay or repeal if Republicans retake control of Congress, the White House or both — so stakeholders should closely watch ongoing IRA implementation and guidance, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • Unpacking The Circuit Split Over A Federal Atty Fee Rule

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    Federal circuit courts that have addressed Rule 41(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are split as to whether attorney fees are included as part of the costs of a previously dismissed action, so practitioners aiming to recover or avoid fees should tailor arguments to the appropriate court, says Joseph Myles and Lionel Lavenue at Finnegan.

  • Takeaways From Justices' Redemption Insurance Decision

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Connelly v. U.S. examines how to determine the fair market value of shares in a closely held company for estate tax purposes, and clarifies how life insurance held by the company to enable redemption of a decedent’s shares affects that calculation, says Evelyn Haralampu at Burns & Levinson.

  • 6 Tips For Maximizing After-Tax Returns In Private M&A Deals

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    With potential tax legislation likely to spur a surge in private business sales, sellers can make the most of after-tax proceeds with strategies that include price allocation and qualified investment options, say Isaac Grossman and Daniel Studin at Morrison Cohen.

  • After A Brief Hiccup, The 'Rocket Docket' Soars Back To No. 1

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    The Eastern District of Virginia’s precipitous 2022 fall from its storied rocket docket status appears to have been a temporary aberration, as recent statistics reveal that the court is once again back on top as the fastest federal civil trial court in the nation, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

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