Federal
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August 08, 2024
IRS Agents Seek To Join Hunter Biden's Tax Privacy Case
Accusations of wrongdoing against two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers who said the government downplayed tax fraud allegations against Hunter Biden give the pair standing to intervene in Biden's privacy case against the U.S. government, the men told a federal court.
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August 08, 2024
Feds Seek 2 Years For Accountant In $8M Payroll Tax Scheme
A New Jersey moving company's head accountant should serve a two-year sentence for being the "nerve center" of a nearly $8 million payroll tax scheme, prosecutors told a New York federal judge in a bid to deny the man's request for a noncustodial sentence.
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August 08, 2024
IRS Targeting Up To $5B In Employee Retention Credit Claims
The Internal Revenue Service in recent weeks sent 28,000 rejection letters to businesses to target high-risk employee retention tax credits that could prevent up to $5 billion in improper credit claims, Commissioner Daniel Werfel said Thursday.
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August 08, 2024
5th Circ. Asked To Back Dell Worker's Penalty For Tax Protest
The Fifth Circuit should uphold a U.S. Tax Court ruling that found a Texas man was required to pay income taxes on nearly $300,000 worth of wages he earned from Dell and a penalty for advancing frivolous arguments, the government said Thursday.
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August 08, 2024
Nixon Peabody Hires Community Development Counsel In DC
When Steven Feenstra, the newest member of Nixon Peabody LLP's the community development finance practice, visited a client's office some 25 years ago, the photos of the community housing projects the client had helped develop made a lasting impression on him, he told Law360 Pulse in an interview Thursday.
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August 08, 2024
Cabinet Cos. Say They're Owed $1.35M In Retention Credits
The Internal Revenue Service owes a pair of Arizona-based cabinet manufacturers that operate as a single employer nearly $1.35 million in employee retention tax credits, the companies told an Arizona federal court, adding that the agency has failed to even respond to their claims.
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August 08, 2024
Colo. Couple Settle $3.4M Hardship Refund Case
A Colorado couple hit by a series of economic and personal hardships have reached a settlement with the federal government that will grant the couple a portion of the $3.4 million refund they sought and resolve their case, the two sides told a Colorado federal court.
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August 08, 2024
US Asks 2nd Circ. To Uphold IRS Lien For $4.2M Restitution
The Internal Revenue Service should be allowed to proceed with a lien to collect some $4.2 million in restitution from a man who pled guilty to three counts of tax fraud, the U.S. told the Second Circuit.
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August 07, 2024
Weak Link Doomed $690M Whistleblower Claim, DC Circ. Says
A whistleblower could not get up to $690 million, or 30% of the $2.3 billion collected in an Internal Revenue Service offshore voluntary disclosure program, because the connection between his actions and the program was weak, the D.C. Circuit said Wednesday.
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August 07, 2024
Waste Co. Not Entitled To Audit Records, IRS Tells Court
Garbage-hauling giant Waste Management Inc. is not entitled to the IRS' tax files on the company from 2017, including audit records, because some documents contain return information of third parties, the agency said Wednesday.
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August 07, 2024
5th Circ. Grapples With 'Ridiculous' $100M Arbitration
A Fifth Circuit panel struggled to make sense out of a "ridiculous" arbitration proceeding that produced four contradictory arbitration awards in a legal malpractice dispute, one awarding $100 million, pressing both sides during oral arguments Wednesday to give answers about how the "spectacle" unfolded.
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August 07, 2024
'Looting' Of Co. Doesn't End S Corp. Status, Tax Court Says
While a co-owner of a California S corporation may have been the victim of two other owners "looting" the company through disproportionate distributions, such actions didn't dissolve its S corporation status, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday.
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August 07, 2024
Pension Plans' Expert Testimony Limited In $2B Tax Fraud Suit
A New York federal court decided to exclude portions of an expert's testimony on behalf of pension plans that are accused of seeking to defraud Denmark's tax agency in a $2.1 billion tax refund fraud scheme.
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August 07, 2024
Tax Court's Economic Substance Foray May Clarify Limits
A U.S. Tax Court judge plans to address an ill-defined provision governing the relevance of the economic substance doctrine in a microcaptive insurance case, offering the courts another chance to clarify an anti-abuse tool the IRS has been deploying more often.
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August 07, 2024
US Taxpayers Claimed $8.4B In Energy Credits In 2023
Taxpayers claimed $6.3 billion is residential clean energy credits and $2.1 billion in energy-efficient home improvement credits in 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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August 06, 2024
US Wants Israeli Businessman Sanctioned In $3.6M FBAR Suit
An Israeli businessman should be sanctioned for defying a Washington federal court's discovery orders by a default judgment in the U.S. government's $3.6 million case over his unreported foreign bank accounts and by another order to comply, the government said Tuesday.
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August 06, 2024
Wind Tower Co. Asks Full Fed. Circ. To Revisit Subsidy Duties
A Federal Circuit panel wrongly concluded that a 10% depreciation rate for deducting costs related to manufacturing facilities set by Canadian law was an unfair trade subsidy that justified countervailing trade duties, a wind tower manufacturer told the court in seeking a rehearing.
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August 06, 2024
Businessman Found To Owe Over $2.9M In FBAR Fines
A U.S. inventor and businessman who had been based in Hong Kong and started a company there must pay over $2.9 million in penalties for failing to report his overseas bank accounts for eight years, a Virginia federal judge ruled Tuesday.
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August 06, 2024
Tax Compliance Costs US Economy $546B, Report Says
The billions of hours spent completing Internal Revenue Service forms and tax returns, along with out-of-pocket compliance costs, ultimately costs the U.S. economy over $546 billion, the Tax Foundation reported Tuesday.
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August 06, 2024
IRS Error Doesn't Enable Kyocera's $7M Refund Suit, US Says
Electronics maker Kyocera can't seek a $7 million tax refund in federal district court because it owed taxes when it filed its original complaint, a fact that isn't changed by IRS' improper abatement of the company's liabilities before it filed an amended complaint, the government argued.
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August 06, 2024
Ayahuasca Church Asks DC Circ. To Rethink Tax Status
An Iowa church that used a psychedelic drug in its rites asked the D.C. Circuit for an en banc rehearing after a panel determined the church was correctly denied tax-exempt status since its main purpose was using a federally illegal drug.
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August 06, 2024
Bressler Grows In NJ With New Litigation, Tax Experts
Bressler Amery & Ross PC added longtime experts in tax law, trusts and estates, and commercial litigation in a recent round of expansion in New Jersey announced this week.
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August 06, 2024
Treasury Floats Rules To Address Losses Under Pillar 2
The U.S. Treasury Department proposed regulations Tuesday that outline when foreign taxes under the Pillar Two international minimum tax agreement could trigger long-standing U.S. rules that aim to prevent companies from what is known as double-dipping the same economic loss.
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August 06, 2024
NC Software Execs Can't Unravel Payroll Tax Fraud Conviction
Two former software executives found guilty of failing to pay over $600,000 in employment taxes failed to clear a steep hurdle in trying to reverse their convictions, a North Carolina federal judge said in rejecting their bid for acquittal or a new trial.
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August 06, 2024
Ex-UBS Exec Calls $4.7M In FBAR Penalties Unconstitutional
A former executive for Swiss bank UBS' North American group told a Connecticut federal court the $4.7 million in penalties he faces for willful failure to report his foreign bank accounts are unconstitutionally excessive.
Expert Analysis
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New Crypto Reporting Will Require Rigorous Recordkeeping
The release of a form for reporting digital asset transactions is a pivotal moment in the Internal Revenue Service's efforts to track cryptocurrency activities that increases oversight by requiring brokers to report investor sales and exchanges, say Shaina Kamen and Max Angel at Holland & Knight.
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Geothermal Energy Has Growing Potential In The US
Bipartisan support for the geothermal industry shows that geothermal energy can be an elegant solution toward global decarbonization efforts because of its small footprint, low supply chain risk, and potential to draw on the skills of existing highly specialized oil and gas workers and renewable specialists, say attorneys at Weil.
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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
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Trump Hush Money Case Offers Master Class In Trial Strategy
The New York criminal hush money trial of former President Donald Trump typifies some of the greatest challenges that lawyers face in crafting persuasive presentations, providing lessons on how to handle bad facts, craft a simple story that withstands attack, and cross-examine with that story in mind, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System
As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.
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State-Regulated Cannabis Can Thrive Without Section 280E
Marijauna's reclassification as a Schedule III-controlled substance comes at a critical juncture, as removing marijuana from being subjected to Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code is the only path forward for the state-regulated cannabis industry to survive and thrive, say Andrew Kline at Perkins Coie and Sammy Markland at FTI Consulting.
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Asset Manager Exemption Shifts May Prove Too Burdensome
The U.S. Department of Labor’s recent change to a prohibited transaction exemption used by retirement plan asset managers introduces a host of new costs, burdens and risks to investment firms, from registration requirements to new transition periods, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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A Look At New IRS Rules For Domestically Controlled REITs
The Internal Revenue Services' finalized Treasury Regulations addressing whether real estate investment trusts qualify as domestically controlled adopt the basic structure of previous proposals, but certain new and modified rules may mitigate the regulations' impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Should NIL Collectives Be Allowed Tax-Favored Status?
Arguments are being made for and against allowing organizations to provide charitable contribution tax deductions for donations used to compensate student-athletes, a practice with impacts on competition for student-athletes and overall tax fairness, but ultimately it is a question for Congress, say Andres Castillo and Barry Gogel at the University of Maryland School of Law.
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Understanding The IRC's Excessive Refund Claim Penalty
Taxpayers considering protective refund claims pending resolution of major questions in tax cases like Moore v. U.S., which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, should understand how doing so may also leave them vulnerable to an excessive refund claim penalty under Internal Revenue Code Section 6676, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Don't Use The Same Template For Every Client Alert
As the old marketing adage goes, consistency is key, but law firm style guides need consistency that contemplates variety when it comes to client alert formats, allowing attorneys to tailor alerts to best fit the audience and subject matter, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Follow The Iron Rule Of Trial Logic
Many diligent and eager attorneys include every good fact, point and rule in their trial narratives — spurred by the gnawing fear they’ll be second-guessed for leaving something out — but this approach ignores a fundamental principle of successful trial lawyering, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.