Federal
-
January 22, 2025
Madigan Used ComEd As 'Personal Piggy Bank,' Jurors Told
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his devoted surrogate Michael McClain conspired to enhance and preserve Madigan's power and line his pockets, both by steering business to the ex-speaker's law firm and rewarding his political allies with do-nothing jobs, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury during closing arguments Wednesday.
-
January 22, 2025
Seven Charged In $600 Million COVID Tax Credit Scheme
Seven people have been accused of trying to defraud the federal government of more than $600 million by filing more than 8,000 false tax returns in what the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday called "the nation's largest COVID-19 tax credit scheme."
-
January 22, 2025
GOP, Dems From High-Tax States Push To Kill SALT Cap
Republican and Democratic lawmakers from high-tax states said Wednesday that raising or eliminating the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction would be essential to gaining their support for a bill to renew expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax breaks.
-
January 22, 2025
Renewing TCJA Will Deepen Economic Divide, Oxfam Says
Renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would cost the U.S. more than $4.5 trillion in revenue that could be used to reduce economic inequality, nongovernmental organization Oxfam said in the release of its annual report on inequality.
-
January 22, 2025
Sheriff's Fund Withdrawal Not Embezzlement, Tax Court Says
A former county sheriff did not embezzle money from an account used to buy food for prisoners when she invested the funds in a business that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday in a dispute over whether she owed taxes on the money.
-
January 22, 2025
GOP Again Floats Reciprocal Taxes In Affront To Global Deal
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday renewed their proposal for reciprocal taxes against countries that participate in an international minimum tax agreement, following up on President Donald Trump's rejection of the global accord.
-
January 22, 2025
Wyden Urges National Standard For Hemp Regulation
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., rallied on Wednesday for his bill that would beef up regulation of products with hemp-derived cannabinoids in order to protect consumers, particularly children.
-
January 22, 2025
Foreclosed Property Owner's Claims Too Late, Tax Court Says
The U.S. Tax Court sustained more than $100,000 in tax liabilities Wednesday against the owner of foreclosed properties, saying she is not entitled to deductions for net operating losses and capital loss carry-forwards that she claimed late.
-
January 22, 2025
Captive Insurance Co. Head Seeks Tax-Shelter Fine Refund
A tax attorney who heads a business that creates captive insurance companies said the IRS wrongly accused him of promoting an abusive tax shelter, telling an Ohio federal court the agency owes him a refund of penalties he handed over.
-
January 21, 2025
Tax Court Slashes $33M Easement Deduction
The U.S. Tax Court reduced a partnership's claimed $33 million tax deduction for a donation of a Georgia conservation easement Tuesday, saying the easement was only worth $4.7 million, partly because the partnership overestimated its development potential in a rural area.
-
January 21, 2025
IRS Office Can't Verify Low-Income Aid Meets Requirements
The Internal Revenue Service office in charge of a program that provides assistance to low-income people dealing with tax disputes can't access information that would allow it to make sure grant recipients meet requirements, potentially harming the program's effectiveness, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Tuesday.
-
January 21, 2025
Expat Facing $6.9M In FBAR Penalties, Interest
An American woman living in Switzerland faces $6.9 million in penalties, interest and late fees because she did not report her accounts that were held at a Swiss bank, the U.S. government told a D.C. federal court.
-
January 21, 2025
Union Calls For Block To Trump's Federal Workers Order
President Donald Trump must halt efforts to enforce his executive order easing the process to fire certain federal employees, the National Treasury Employees Union argued in a lawsuit, claiming thousands of workers could be at risk of termination "for any reason including political agenda."
-
January 21, 2025
Co. Seeks IRS Refund In $2.7M Captive Insurance Case
A Delaware federal court should refund tax penalties a company paid on a $2.7 bill from the IRS for activities related to captive insurance companies and promoting abusive tax shelters, the company argued Tuesday, saying the government provided no proof it did anything wrong.
-
January 21, 2025
Tribal Tax Status Regs Leave Energy Credit Access Up In Air
While recently proposed regulations would provide long-awaited clarity that enterprises wholly owned by Native American tribes are exempt from federal taxes, the rules leave glaring questions open about whether tribes can access clean energy tax credits through business structures like joint ventures.
-
January 21, 2025
Senate Finance Committee Approves Trump's Treasury Pick
The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday approved Scott Bessent, President Donald Trump's nominee for treasury secretary, sending his nomination to the full Senate for a vote.
-
January 21, 2025
Trump Order Places IRS Under Indefinite Hiring Freeze
President Donald Trump said a hiring freeze that he ordered at federal government agencies will be harsher at the Internal Revenue Service, with the agency requiring an extra layer of review, with no specified end date, before hiring can restart.
-
January 17, 2025
Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year
Law360 would like to congratulate the winners of its Practice Groups of the Year awards for 2024, which honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and significant transaction work that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.
-
January 17, 2025
Law360 Names Firms Of The Year
Eight law firms have earned spots as Law360's Firms of the Year, with 54 Practice Group of the Year awards among them, steering some of the largest deals of 2024 and securing high-profile litigation wins, including at the U.S. Supreme Court.
-
January 17, 2025
Par Funding's Fraud Caused $288M In Losses, Pa. Judge Says
Par Funding caused $288 million in losses stemming from a scheme to defraud investors who poured money into its cash advance business, a Pennsylvania federal judge said Friday, days after holding an evidentiary hearing where the government and the defendants sparred over dueling loss amounts.
-
January 17, 2025
Feds Say Pa. Investment Adviser Stole $20M From Clients
A Pennsylvania investment adviser's alleged misappropriation of more than $20 million worth of client funds has landed him criminal charges and civil enforcement action from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
-
January 17, 2025
US Guidance On Amount B Carries Potential For Disputes
Recent IRS guidance on a simplified and streamlined transfer pricing method for certain cross-border transactions, known as Amount B, suggests rulemakers want feedback on how it would work if it were made mandatory, but that approach could lead to controversy without global cooperation.
-
January 17, 2025
Bill Aims To Extend Biogas Investment Credit Through 2025
A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would extend the clean energy investment tax credit available for certain biogas facilities' equipment through the end of 2025 instead of at the end of 2024, the bill's sponsors said Friday.
-
January 17, 2025
11th Circ. Urged To Reject Biz Owners' Tax Penalty Challenge
The owners of an electronic parts company who asked the Eleventh Circuit to reverse a tax penalty and find that Tax Court judges have unconstitutional job protections failed to link the two and are not entitled to tax relief, the U.S. government said Friday.
-
January 17, 2025
LA Crypto 'Godfather' Admits To $36M Meta Hacking Fraud
A Los Angeles-based cryptocurrency founder who called himself "The Godfather" will plead guilty to earning $36 million through the sale of hacked Meta Platforms advertising accounts and evading taxes on the fraudulent profits, according to federal court documents unsealed Friday,
Expert Analysis
-
The Trade And Tax Issues Behind US-Canada Digital Tax Clash
The new Canadian digital services tax recently went into effect despite objections from the U.S., a controversy that represents an unusual mix of trade and tax policy, and many companies have been pondering how it will affect their e-commerce businesses, says Damon Pike at BDO.
-
Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
-
AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
-
A Look At How De Minimis Import Rules May Soon Change
The planned implementation of executive actions focused on the de minimis rule as it applies to shipments means companies should use this interval to evaluate the potential applicability and impact of Section 301, Section 201 or Section 232 duties on their products, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
-
Ruling On Foreign Dividend Break Offers 2 Tax Court Insights
In Varian v. Commissioner, the U.S. Tax Court allowed a taxpayer's deduction for dividends from foreign subsidiaries, providing clarity on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision may affect challenges to Treasury regulations, and revealing a potential disallowance of foreign tax credits, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
-
Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
-
Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
-
It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
-
Avoid Getting Burned By Agencies' Solar Financing Spotlight
Recently coordinated reports and advisories from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission maximize the spotlight on the consumer solar financing market and highlight pitfalls for lenders to avoid in this burgeoning field, says Mercedes Tunstall at Cadwalader.
-
Tax Traps In Acquisitions Of Financially Distressed Targets
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Parties to the acquisition of an insolvent or bankrupt company face myriad tax considerations, including limitations on using the distressed company's tax benefits, cancellation of indebtedness income, tax lien issues and potential tax reorganizations.
-
Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls
Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.
-
How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
-
Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.