Federal
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December 23, 2025
11th Circ. Rejects Woman's Legal Fees In Tax Case Win
A Florida woman cannot recoup around $6,000 in attorney fees as part of her win in a U.S. Tax Court deficiency action despite paying her husband's legal practice to help with the case, the Eleventh Circuit found, affirming the Tax Court's ruling.
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December 22, 2025
10th Circ. Tosses Plumbing Co.'s Captive Deduction Bid
The Tenth Circuit is not the proper forum for a Utah plumbing company to challenge the Internal Revenue Service's 2016 notice denying a microcaptive insurance deduction, the appeals court found Monday, citing two statutes that bar the company's arguments.
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December 22, 2025
6th Circ. Vacates Pharma Salesman's $6.8M Restitution Order
The Sixth Circuit vacated a nearly $7 million restitution order against a pharmaceutical salesman convicted of healthcare fraud, finding an Ohio federal court erred in calculating that amount and apportioning liability.
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December 22, 2025
Draft House Bill Would Clarify Tax Rules For Digital Assets
A bipartisan draft bill in the U.S. House would modernize the federal tax code for digital assets, its backers said, by establishing a "commonsense tax treatment" for regulated payment stablecoins, clarifying source-of-income rules for trading and extending existing securities-lending rules to digital assets.
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December 22, 2025
IRS To Issue Guidance For Dyed Fuel Tax Refunds
The IRS announced plans Monday to issue guidance for a provision under the federal budget bill regarding a tax refund process for dyed fuel.
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December 22, 2025
Top Federal Tax Policies Of 2025
The first year of President Donald Trump's second term brought the passage of this summer's budget reconciliation bill, which renewed major parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and major staffing changes at the Internal Revenue Service. Here, Law360 looks at the most consequential developments in federal tax policy in 2025.
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December 22, 2025
Britney Spears Disputes $720K IRS Bill In Tax Court
Britney Spears is challenging the IRS over the more than $720,000 it assessed against her in 2021, telling the U.S. Tax Court that the agency improperly increased income she received through her pass-through entity.
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December 22, 2025
Tariff Refunds Would Be 'A Mess,' Economic Official Says
It would be an "administrative problem" to issue tariff refunds in the aftermath of a potential U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the White House's trade measures, a top economic policy official said.
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December 22, 2025
IRS Seeks Input On Updates To Voluntary Disclosure Process
The Internal Revenue Service asked Monday for comments on a proposed change to its voluntary disclosure program that would require payment of all taxes, penalties and interest within three months after being conditionally approved for the program.
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December 22, 2025
Farmers Can Pay Capital Gains Tax In Installments, IRS Says
Farmers who will pay capital gains tax on a farmland property sale to another farmer can opt to make the payments in four equal installments instead of a lump sum under guidance the IRS released Monday, implementing relief created by the 2025 budget law.
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December 19, 2025
Gunderson-Led Tax Firm Andersen Trades Up After Rare IPO
Tax valuation and advisory firm Andersen Group Inc. has closed a $202 million initial public offering, marking a rare IPO that required legal teams to navigate uncommon structural and governance challenges, according to attorneys who steered the offering.
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December 19, 2025
Conn. Investment Adviser Admits To Tax Evasion
A Connecticut man pled guilty to tax evasion after using $5.2 million of his private equity fund's money to pay personal expenses and causing a criminal tax loss of nearly $2.2 million, federal prosecutors said.
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December 19, 2025
IRS Extends Transition For States' Paid Family Leave Changes
States with paid family and medical leave programs have another year to transition to changes to the income and employment tax treatment of contributions paid in certain situations to support those benefits, the IRS said Friday, adopting stakeholders' recommendation for more time to comply.
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December 19, 2025
IRS Relaxes Carbon Capture Credit's Environmental Reporting
The Internal Revenue Service released guidance Friday easing the carbon capture tax credit's environmental reporting requirements, taking effect by the end of the year, for energy systems that permanently secure the emissions in geological locations, such as deep underground rock formations.
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December 19, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Baker Botts, Morgan Lewis
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Trump Media and Technology Group merges with fusion power company TAE Technologies, pharmaceutical company Cencora boosts its stake in cancer care company OneOncology, and Phoenix Financial partners with private equity giant Blackstone to plug billions into various credit strategies.
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December 19, 2025
Calif. Ex-Customs Broker Sentenced For Tax, Wire Fraud
A California man was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison after being indicted this year on federal fraud charges and one count of tax evasion, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
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December 19, 2025
Polsinelli Lands Glaser Weil Tax Pro In Los Angeles
Polsinelli PC is expanding its business team, bringing in a tax pro from Glaser Weil as a shareholder in its Los Angeles office.
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December 18, 2025
IRS Guidance Discriminates Against Wind, Solar, Groups Say
Several groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the city of San Francisco, asked a D.C. federal court Thursday to block the Internal Revenue Service from instituting new tax credit rules that they say illegally discriminate against wind and solar projects.
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December 18, 2025
Tax Court Denies Ex-Calif. Software Officer's Loan Deductions
A former executive of a now-defunct California software company cannot get a tax break on loans he said he lent the failing business between 2012 and 2015, a U.S. Tax Court judge ruled Thursday, finding he failed to show the loans could be deductible.
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December 18, 2025
7th Circ. Upholds Ex-Illinois Lawmaker's Tax Sentence
A former Illinois lawmaker cannot change her sentence despite attempts to comply with her tax reporting obligations after she was charged with evading them, the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday, rejecting her argument that a lower court unconstitutionally barred evidence of her amended return.
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December 18, 2025
IRS Sets Unused Housing Credit Carryovers For 25 States
The IRS published Thursday the amounts of unused housing credit carryovers allocated to qualified states for 2025.
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December 18, 2025
Trump Orders Loosening Of Federal Restrictions On Marijuana
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that his administration would instruct federal agencies to loosen restrictions on cannabis via executive order, a historic acknowledgment from the executive branch that the drug has recognized medical uses.
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December 18, 2025
AICPA Urges IRS To Create Lower Private Ruling Fee Class
The Internal Revenue Service should create a separate, lower user fee category for S corporation private letter ruling requests, the American Institute of CPAs told agency officials.
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December 17, 2025
Court Remands Commerce Ruling On Vietnam Steel Duties
The U.S. Department of Commerce did not properly substantiate its 2023 findings that imports of Vietnamese steel products were flouting duties imposed on South Korea, India and China, the U.S. Court of International Trade said, remanding the agency's determinations.
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December 17, 2025
Ex-Biden Tax Counsel To Chair Willkie Tax Resolution Team
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP has hired a former senior tax counsel who worked in two Democratic presidential administrations to come on board as chair of the firm's tax resolution practice group, according to a Wednesday announcement.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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US Reassessment Of OECD Tax Deal Is Right Move
The wholesale U.S. reevaluation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax deal ordered by President Donald Trump is a positive step that could ultimately create a more durable international tax system, says Anne Gordon at the National Foreign Trade Council.
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Measuring And Mitigating Harm From Discriminatory Taxes
In response to new tariffs and other recent "America First Trade Policy" pronouncements, corporations should assess and take steps to minimize their potential exposure to discriminatory and reciprocal tax measures that are likely to come, say economists at Charles River Associates.
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Adapting To Private Practice: From DOJ Leadership To BigLaw
The move from government service to private practice can feel like changing one’s identity, but as someone who has left the U.S. Department of Justice twice, I’ve learned that a successful transition requires patience, effort and the realization that the rewards of practicing law don’t come from one particular position, says Richard Donoghue at Pillsbury.
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How The CRE Industry Is Adapting To Tariff Uncertainty
Amid uncertainty about pending tariffs and their potential ripple effects, including higher material costs, supply chain delays and tighter margins, commercial real estate industry players are focusing on strategic planning and risk mitigation, says Daniel Diaz Leyva at Day Pitney.
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Law Firm Executive Orders Create A Legal Ethics Minefield
Recent executive orders targeting BigLaw firms create ethical dilemmas — and raise the specter of civil or criminal liability — for the government attorneys tasked with implementing them and for the law firms that choose to make agreements with the administration, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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Trade Policy Shifts Raise Hurdles For Gov't And Cos. Alike
The persistent tension between the Trump administration's fast-moving and aggressive trade policies and the compliance-heavy nature of the trade industry creates implementation challenges for both the business community and the government, says Sara Schoenfeld at Kamerman.
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Firms Must Embrace Alternative Billing Models Or Fall Behind
As artificial intelligence tools eliminate inefficiencies and the Big Four accounting firms enter the legal market, law firms that pivot from the entrenched billable hour model to outcomes-based pricing will see a distinct competitive advantage, says attorney William Brewer.
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How Attorneys Can Master The Art Of On-Camera Presence
As attorneys are increasingly presented with on-camera opportunities, they can adapt their traditional legal skills for video contexts — such as virtual client meetings, marketing content or media interviews — by understanding the medium and making intentional adjustments, says Kerry Barrett.
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Adapting To Private Practice: From Fed. Prosecutor To BigLaw
Making the jump from government to private practice is no small feat, but, based on my experience transitioning to a business-driven environment after 15 years as an assistant U.S. attorney, it can be incredibly rewarding and help you become a more versatile lawyer, says Michael Beckwith at Dickinson Wright.