Federal
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March 20, 2025
Texas Law Firm Fights Denial Of Captive Insurance Deduction
A Texas law firm asked the U.S. Tax Court to find that the IRS improperly denied it a $621,000 deduction for payments it made to a captive insurance company, saying the agency wrongly accused the firm of participating in an abusive insurance arrangement.
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March 20, 2025
PwC, Deloitte, KPMG Back Coke In $2.7B Dispute In 11th Circ.
Three major accounting firms have asked the Eleventh Circuit to reverse a U.S. Tax Court decision affirming the IRS' change to Coca-Cola's intercompany pricing, which led to a $2.7 billion tax bill, arguing the agency's conduct was unsupported and unjustified.
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March 20, 2025
90% Of Crypto Sellers Conceal Income, Danish Data Shows
Danish Tax Agency data shows more than 90% of cryptocurrency sellers don't report that income and that many have shifted to foreign platforms to avoid domestic reporting rules, the EU Tax Observatory said in a working paper, suggesting international coordination is essential to tax crypto effectively.
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March 20, 2025
Sisters Say Bad Advice Led To Skipped $14M Estate Tax Filing
Two sisters overseeing their brother's $13.7 million estate told a Rhode Island district court that they shouldn't have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax penalties for missing the deadline to file an estate tax return because they were reasonably relying on advice from their attorney.
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March 19, 2025
IRS Hunter Biden Whistleblower Named Deputy Criminal Chief
An Internal Revenue Service special agent who accused the U.S. Department of Justice of mishandling an investigation into former President Joe Biden's son has been named deputy chief in the IRS Criminal Investigation division, the agency said Wednesday.
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March 19, 2025
Coke's $2.7B Tax Bill Arbitrary, Business Groups Tell 11th Circ.
Three industry groups asked the Eleventh Circuit to reverse a U.S. Tax Court decision affirming that the Internal Revenue Service could raise Coca-Cola's taxes by $2.7 billion, saying in friend-of-the-court briefs that the IRS acted arbitrarily in hiking the Atlanta-based beverage giant's tax liability.
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March 19, 2025
Tax Court Upholds Penalty On Early Retirement Withdrawal
A Florida man should have included his early withdrawal of roughly $57,000 from his retirement account in that year's tax return, the U.S. Tax Court said Wednesday, also agreeing that the agency was correct to assess an accuracy-related penalty against him.
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March 19, 2025
Technical, Policy Questions Still Swirl Around Amount B
U.S. multinational corporations have welcomed the option of a simplified transfer pricing approach under an international tax framework known as Amount B, but uncertainties linger about how the rules will ultimately shake out on a technical level both domestically and globally.
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March 19, 2025
7th Circ. Orders Tax Court To Clarify ESOP Suit Dismissal
The Seventh Circuit axed the U.S. Tax Court's dismissal of a transit company's suit over an employee stock ownership plan, saying the lower court must specify that it lacked the authority to review the case because it was filed before the IRS completed an exam.
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March 19, 2025
6th Circ. Says Pharmacist Doesn't Owe Tax On Forfeited IRA
A pharmacist doing time for running a Kentucky pill mill doesn't owe taxes on his forfeited retirement account, the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday, reversing a U.S. Tax Court decision that upheld what the appeals court described as an unexpected punishment.
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March 19, 2025
Satellite Startup Execs Accused Of Fraud And Tax Evasion
An aerospace company's founder, an attorney and other executives lied about a venture to launch billions of dollars in satellites so they could rake in millions from investors, according to an indictment in D.C. federal court that also charges the founder with tax crimes.
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March 19, 2025
Goldstein Says Feds 'Misled' Court With Obstruction Claim
U.S. Supreme Court lawyer and SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein wants a Maryland federal judge to sanction prosecutors in his tax evasion case for a "pattern of false and misleading statements" to the court accusing him of hiding millions in cryptocurrency and bribing his former law firm manager.
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March 19, 2025
DC Judge Won't Preemptively Stop IRS Data Sharing With DHS
A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday said two immigrant rights groups had not shown that the IRS is poised to unlawfully share noncitizen taxpayer records with immigration enforcement authorities, rejecting their bid for a court order that would preemptively block any information transfer.
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March 19, 2025
Law360 Announces The Members Of Its 2025 Editorial Boards
Law360 is pleased to announce the formation of its 2025 Editorial Advisory Boards.
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March 19, 2025
Taxpayer Advocacy Joint Committee To Meet In April
The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel's Joint Committee will meet April 21 following a string of meetings by individual subcommittees earlier in the month, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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March 18, 2025
Tax Court Sides With IRS Deeming Debt 'Seriously Delinquent'
A Florida man's tax debt was property certified by the Internal Revenue Service as "seriously delinquent" and reported to the U.S. secretary of state to bar him from obtaining or renewing a passport, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday.
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March 18, 2025
Express Scripts Denied Tax Break For Software In $43M Suit
Express Scripts is not entitled to a tax deduction for domestic production activities related to its software because it did not grant licenses to pharmacy benefit plan sponsors who used it, a Missouri federal court said Tuesday, denying the company's request for a tax refund in its $43 million case.
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March 18, 2025
Tax Court Cleared To Resolve IRS Offset Feud, Justices Told
The U.S. Tax Court can still adjudicate a case challenging an Internal Revenue Service collection action even after the agency tried to improperly zero out the disputed liability in an attempt to dismiss the suit, a New Jersey woman told the U.S. Supreme Court.
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March 18, 2025
Trump Hasn't Asked IRS For Immigrants' Tax Info, Gov't Says
The IRS hasn't received any requests from President Donald Trump for immigrants' tax return information and hasn't released any such information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the government told a D.C. federal court in opposing a restraining order sought by immigrant rights groups.
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March 18, 2025
5th Circ. Backs La. Doctor's Tax Evasion Conviction
The Fifth Circuit declined to overturn a Louisiana doctor's felony tax evasion conviction, rejecting her contention that jurors received muddied instructions that led to her being wrongly found guilty of dodging $1.6 million taxes and sentenced to more than four years in federal prison.
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March 18, 2025
Judge Probes Atty Conflict In Vanguard $40M Settlement
A Pennsylvania federal judge questioned whether attorneys representing investors suing Vanguard over surprise tax bills have a conflict of interest in pushing for a $40 million settlement, adding to concerns about a parallel regulatory settlement that has delayed approval of the deal.
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March 17, 2025
Florida Businessman Pleads Guilty To Hiding $20M From IRS
A Florida businessman faces up to five years in prison after he pled guilty Monday to hiding $20 million in Swiss bank accounts from the Internal Revenue Service.
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March 17, 2025
Split 9th Circ. Won't Halt Federal Workers Reinstatement Order
A divided Ninth Circuit panel on Monday denied President Donald Trump's administration an immediate administrative stay of a California district court order requiring reinstatement of some probationary federal workers fired from six agencies, the majority saying a pause "would disrupt the status quo and turn it on its head."
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March 17, 2025
The Tax Angle: Lawmakers Huddle To Mull TCJA
From a look at the three-day legislative retreat held by House Democrats to Ways and Means Republicans meeting behind closed doors to discuss the 2017 GOP tax overhaul, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few of the week's developing tax stories.
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March 17, 2025
$19M In Partner Shares Not Earnings, Co. Tells Tax Court
A New York-based investment partnership accused the Internal Revenue Service of wrongly increasing its income subject to self-employment taxes by about $19 million by misclassifying its limited partners to include their shares, according to a U.S. Tax Court petition.
Expert Analysis
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What DOL Fiduciary Rule Means For Private Fund Managers
Attorneys at Ropes & Gray discuss how the U.S. Department of Labor's recently released final fiduciary rule, which revises the agency's 1975 regulation, could potentially cause private fund managers' current marketing practices and communications to be considered fiduciary advice, and therefore subject them to strict prohibitions.
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Money, Money, Money: Limiting White Collar Wealth Evidence
As courts increasingly recognize that allowing unfettered evidence of wealth could prejudice a jury against a defendant, white collar defense counsel should consider several avenues for excluding visual evidence of a lavish lifestyle at trial, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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How Associates Can Build A Professional Image
As hybrid work arrangements become the norm in the legal industry, early-career attorneys must be proactive in building and maintaining a professional presence in both physical and digital settings, ensuring that their image aligns with their long-term career goals, say Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners and Estelle Winsett at Estelle Winsett Professional Image Consulting.
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Navigating New Safe Harbor For Domestic Content Tax Credits
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s recent notice simplifying domestic content calculations for certain solar, onshore wind and battery storage projects, which directly acknowledges the difficulty for taxpayers in gathering data to support a domestic content analysis, should make it easier to qualify additional domestic content bonus tax credits, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.
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Firms Must Rethink How They Train New Lawyers In AI Age
As law firms begin to use generative artificial intelligence to complete lower-level legal tasks, they’ll need to consider new ways to train summer associates and early-career attorneys, keeping in mind the five stages of skill acquisition, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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'Energy Communities' Update May Clarify Tax Credit Eligibility
A recent IRS notice that includes updated lists of locations where clean energy projects can qualify for additional tax credits — based 2023 unemployment data and placed-in-service dates — should help provide clarity regarding project eligibility that sponsors and developers need, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Always Be Closing
When a lawyer presents their case with the right propulsive structure throughout trial, there is little need for further argument after the close of evidence — and in fact, rehashing it all may test jurors’ patience — so attorneys should consider other strategies for closing arguments, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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How Cannabis Rescheduling May Alter Paraphernalia Imports
The Biden administration's recent proposal to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana use raises questions about how U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforcement policies may shift when it comes to enforcing a separate federal ban on marijuana accessory imports, says R. Kevin Williams at Clark Hill.
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NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It
The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.
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Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.