Federal
-
April 30, 2025
Ex-Treasury Official Joins Baker McKenzie's Tax Practice
Baker McKenzie has hired a former deputy assistant secretary at the Treasury Department to work on international tax matters as a partner in the firm's office in Washington, D.C.
-
April 30, 2025
6 Taxpayer Advocacy Committees To Meet In May
Six Taxpayer Advocacy Panel committees will meet in May to discuss possible customer service improvements, the Internal Revenue Service said in notices Wednesday.
-
April 30, 2025
Bipartisan House Members Pitch Expanded Paid Family Leave
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers unveiled legislation Wednesday that they said would expand access to paid family leave by incentivizing states to establish their own programs and facilitating the exchange of information between state and federal officials.
-
April 29, 2025
Immigration Ruling No Help To Liberty Global, 10th Circ. Told
Liberty Global cannot use a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on interpreting ambiguous law in an immigration case to support the company's interpretation of law in its $248 million foreign tax credit claim, the federal government told the Tenth Circuit.
-
April 29, 2025
Man Sentenced To 4 Years For Pandemic Loan, Tax Fraud
A man who said he has struggled with substance use for most of his life was sentenced in Arizona federal court Monday to four years in prison for filing more than $7 million in false claims for tax refunds and making false pandemic aid applications.
-
April 29, 2025
Bessent Says EU Must Kill Digital Taxes For US Trade Deal
The U.S. government wants European countries to repeal digital service taxes before the European Union moves forward with trade negotiations, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.
-
April 29, 2025
Trump Can't Reorganize Gov't Without Congress, Groups Say
President Donald Trump lacks the power to reorganize the executive branch and push for mass terminations of workers when Congress hasn't given its blessing, unions and other groups told a California federal court.
-
April 29, 2025
Tax Breaks For Offshore Production Could Thwart Tariffs' Goal
President Donald Trump has said that his wide-ranging tariffs will jump-start domestic industry and production, but an international tax policy created under the 2017 federal overhaul may undermine the goal of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.
-
April 29, 2025
Par Funding Accountant Cops To Helping Hide $20M From IRS
A Colorado accountant pled guilty to abetting the former CEO of now-defunct small-business lending firm Par Funding in concealing over $20 million in income from the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors announced.
-
April 29, 2025
US Seeks To Toss Case Against IRS Microcaptive Rules
A global tax services provider cannot sue the IRS to vacate tax reporting rules for microcaptive insurance companies, the U.S. told a Texas federal court, arguing that the provider, as a consultant to clients using the insurers, wouldn't actually be hurt by the rules.
-
April 29, 2025
Senate Panel Advances Trump's Treasury Tax Policy Pick
The Senate Finance Committee approved President Donald Trump's pick for assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy along party lines Tuesday.
-
April 29, 2025
Automakers Get 15% Tariff Offset Under New Trump Order
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday afternoon to provide automakers that produce and sell finished vehicles in the U.S. a 15% offset on future imported parts that face a 25% tariff for the next year.
-
April 29, 2025
IRS Shouldn't Elect To Use OECD Pricing Method, AICPA Says
The IRS shouldn't unilaterally apply the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's streamlined approach to price-related companies' baseline distribution and marketing costs and should give companies a wide berth to choose the approach, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants told the agency.
-
April 28, 2025
Court Urged To Reconsider Jurisdiction In Tribal Tariff Row
Blackfeet Nation members are asking a Montana federal judge to reconsider an order to transfer their challenge against President Donald Trump's tariffs on imports from Canada and abroad to the U.S. Court of International Trade, saying the decision is based on the constitutional question of the Indian commerce clause.
-
April 28, 2025
NC Dentist Acquitted Of $3M Fraud, Tax Evasion Charges
A North Carolina dentist was acquitted of wire fraud and tax evasion charges on the fourth day of a federal jury trial in which prosecutors had alleged the dentist submitted false loan applications to the Small Business Administration and failed to pay income taxes.
-
April 28, 2025
Feds Urged To Drop Crypto Mixer Charges After DOJ Memo
Federal prosecutors are weighing whether to continue pursuing a criminal case against two executives of crypto mixing service Samourai Wallet in light of a recent U.S. Department of Justice memo limiting certain digital asset prosecutions.
-
April 28, 2025
Tax Services Provider Andersen Files Confidential IPO Plans
Tax and legal services provider Andersen Group Inc. said Monday it confidentially filed for an initial public offering, marking a first step toward going public amid market volatility that has largely frozen IPOs in recent weeks.
-
April 28, 2025
Board Game Co., 11 Others Say Trump Tariffs Unconstitutional
President Donald Trump's tariffs exceed the constitutional authority of the executive branch, argued 12 American companies, including a manufacturer of tabletop games that are printed in China, urging a federal court to halt them.
-
April 28, 2025
Car Dealer Can't Duck Fines For Cash Reporting Failures
The U.S. Tax Court upheld more than $118,000 in penalties Monday against an Arizona-based car dealership, rejecting its argument that third-party tax software errors were to blame for its failures to report cash transactions of over $10,000 for 2016.
-
April 28, 2025
2nd Circ. Upholds Clinic Manager's Repeat Charges For Fraud
A decision that allowed the federal government to reindict a health clinic manager for a Medicare and tax fraud scheme can stand, a Second Circuit panel found Monday, agreeing with the lower court that his offenses were serious enough to permit it.
-
April 28, 2025
No Harm Shown Over DOGE Access To Tax Data, US Says
The U.S. government asked a D.C. federal court to throw out four organizations' bid to keep the White House's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing confidential taxpayer data, saying their suit fails to show injury to the groups' members.
-
April 28, 2025
Feds No Longer Want Convicted Ex-Ill. Speaker To Forfeit $3M
The federal government has reversed course on a bid for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to forfeit more than $3 million in the wake of his partial conviction on public corruption, saying it stands by its legal arguments but was backing off as "a matter of discretion."
-
April 28, 2025
Latham Advises REIT's $340M Stock Offering
Retail-focused real estate investment trust Agree Realty Corp. signed a forward sale agreement in which the REIT made a more than $340 million public offering of 4.5 million shares of its common stock for the price of $75.70 apiece, in a deal guided by Latham & Watkins LLP, the law firm announced.
-
April 28, 2025
Miami Tax Prep Owner Barred From Work For 3 Years
A Miami tax preparation business and its owner are barred from doing any tax work for three years and must pay $446,000 in client fees to the government for preparing false returns the government claims caused a $500,000 tax loss, a Florida federal court said Monday.
-
April 28, 2025
High Court Passes On Dell Worker's Income Tax Case
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review a decision that nearly $300,000 in income earned by an employee of Dell Techologies Inc. is taxable, letting stand a Fifth Circuit ruling that additionally upheld a penalty against the man for making frivolous arguments.
Expert Analysis
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.