Federal

  • October 30, 2024

    Jury Finds Importer Didn't Report $17M On Tax Returns

    A Los Angeles jury found an importer of Chinese clothing guilty of skirting more than $8 million in customs duties and failing to report more than $17 million in cash transactions on tax returns, federal prosecutors in California announced Wednesday.

  • October 30, 2024

    Tax Court Stands By Couple's Tax Liability After Remand

    An investor couple whose case was remanded by the Sixth Circuit is still liable for over $603,000 in deficient taxes tied to $3 million in claimed losses from a complex foreign-exchange derivative arrangement since their actions were not made with legitimate intentions of turning a profit, the U.S. Tax Court said Wednesday.

  • October 30, 2024

    GOP Lawmakers Criticize Treasury's Start Of Taiwan Tax Talks

    The top tax-writing Republicans in Congress said Wednesday that the U.S. Treasury Department's announcement that it would begin negotiations with Taiwan on a double-tax relief agreement risks undermining legislation to address the issue that is stalled in the Senate.

  • October 30, 2024

    Mayo Shouldn't Get Tax Break For Education, 8th Circ. Told

    The Eighth Circuit should overturn a ruling that found the Mayo Clinic's intertwined medical and educational purposes qualified it for a tax exemption on certain business income for educational institutions, the U.S. government argued, saying a recent Fifth Circuit ruling supports its argument that only exclusively educational organizations qualify.

  • October 30, 2024

    IRS Seeks Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Members From 14 States

    The Internal Revenue Service is accepting applications for its Taxpayer Advocacy Panel from 14 states and Puerto Rico, the agency said Wednesday.

  • October 29, 2024

    Ex-Cleveland Councilman Can't Cut 6-Year Fraud Sentence

    An Ohio federal judge will not allow a former Cleveland city councilman to get out of jail on compassionate release, ruling the ex-politician "has never demonstrated any remorse for his criminal conduct" and should serve the remainder of his six-year fraud sentence.

  • October 29, 2024

    Partnership Must Reduce Year-End Outside Basis By $4.8M

    A California partnership must decrease its outside basis in a lower-tier partnership by $4.8 million in excess losses determined by the IRS, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Tuesday, saying the agency's concession on the partnership's related deduction didn't stop the court from making the ruling.

  • October 29, 2024

    IRS Taps EY Principal For Newly Formed Pass-Through Office

    The Internal Revenue Service selected a former agency lawyer who has most recently worked as a principal at EY to serve as associate chief counsel for its new pass-through office that will focus entirely on partnerships, S corporations, trusts and estates, the agency said Tuesday.

  • October 29, 2024

    Building Co. Cops To Worker Scheme Tied To Tax Fraud

    A truss building company pled guilty to conspiring to hide its employment of dozens of unauthorized workers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with a former employee, who admitted to filing false tax returns as part of the scheme, according to Florida federal court documents.

  • October 29, 2024

    Rimon Adds International Tax Expert In Philadelphia

    Rimon PC has added an expert in international tax and trusts and estates who joined the firm's Philadelphia office after working for his own practice.  

  • October 29, 2024

    4th Circ. Unclear On LeClairRyan Founder's Tax Liability

    A Fourth Circuit panel appeared confused and noncommittal Tuesday as it wrestled with a narrow question of contract interpretation that could determine whether Gary LeClair of defunct LeClairRyan PLLC is on the hook for massive tax bills tied to the firm's collapse.

  • October 29, 2024

    US, Taiwan To Begin Talks On Double-Tax Agreement

    The U.S. and Taiwan announced Tuesday that they will begin a first round of negotiations to craft a double-tax avoidance agreement that would provide certain treaty-like benefits.

  • October 28, 2024

    Crypto Co. Operator Faces Money Laundering, Tax Charges

    Federal prosecutors accused an Indiana property owner of laundering the proceeds of a crypto money transmitter — AurumXchange — that they say should have been licensed and of failing to file tax returns despite realizing six figure gains from investing the proceeds.

  • October 28, 2024

    Metals Co. Owner Convicted Of Tax Fraud In $58M Theft Case

    A Delaware federal jury convicted the owner of a gold and silver depository of tax fraud and other crimes tied to the government's accusations that he stole $58 million in precious metals from his customers, according to court filings.

  • October 28, 2024

    IRS Extends Relief For FATCA Filings Without ID Numbers

    Foreign financial institutions that report information on U.S. account holders to the Internal Revenue Service without including the taxpayer identification numbers associated with those accounts won't be flagged for noncompliance for the next three years, the agency said Monday.

  • October 28, 2024

    US Expatriations Tick Up In 3rd Quarter, IRS Says

    The number of people who expatriated from the U.S. rose during the third quarter of the year compared with the previous quarter, the Internal Revenue Service said Monday.

  • October 25, 2024

    Crypto Rapidly Transforming IRS Criminal Cases, Agent Says

    Cryptocurrency is altering the size of many criminal cases that federal law enforcement agencies are handling, an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator told the UCLA Tax Controversy Conference, commenting that over the past three years the agency broke its record for asset seizures three times.

  • October 25, 2024

    9th Circ. Backs 7-Year Sentence Over Chip Exports To China

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday upheld the seven-year prison sentence imposed on a former University of California, Los Angeles, electrical engineering professor convicted of illegally exporting high-powered semiconductor chips to China, saying the district court did not err in holding that the conduct amounted to an evasion of national security controls.

  • October 25, 2024

    'Magician' Tax Preparer Close To Plea Deal In $100M Case

    A New York City-based tax preparer who earned the nickname "the magician," allegedly making $15 million while fraudulently depriving the IRS of $100 million, is in "fruitful" plea talks with prosecutors, a Manhattan federal judge heard Friday.

  • October 25, 2024

    IRS Delays Deadlines For Victims Of Alaska City Flooding

    Taxpayers in the city and borough of Juneau, Alaska, will have until May 1 to file individual and business tax returns and make payments after the area was hit by flooding, the Internal Revenue Service said Friday.

  • October 25, 2024

    IRS Agents To Appeal Exclusion From Biden Tax Privacy Case

    The IRS agents accused of improperly revealing Hunter Biden's tax return information in his privacy lawsuit against the U.S. government told a D.C. federal court Friday that they're planning to challenge a decision preventing them from personally intervening in the case.

  • October 25, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Skadden, Kirkland

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp. absorbs Sandy Spring Bancorp, Sophos and Secureworks merge, Wendel Group takes a stake in Monroe Capital LLC, and Acuity Brands Inc. buys QSC LLC.

  • October 25, 2024

    IRS Failed To Prevent $47M In Fraud Despite Alert, TIGTA Says

    The Internal Revenue Service failed to detect more than 570 false tax returns that claimed over $47 million in fraudulent refunds despite having been previously alerted to the scheme used to file them, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Adminsitration said Friday.

  • October 25, 2024

    Virgin Islands Looks To Recoup Ocwen's $8.6M Tax Refund

    The U.S. Virgin Islands' revenue bureau mistakenly paid an $8.6 million tax refund to mortgage company Ocwen based on a 90% economic development credit that shouldn't have been allowed, the islands' government told a federal court as it seeks to take back the money.

  • October 25, 2024

    Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin

    The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, included final rules that ended an income inclusion associated with intangibles for companies in some cases when transferring intellectual property from abroad back to the U.S.

Featured Stories

  • Pillar 2 Likely To Cast Shadow Over US Tax Bill Talks

    Natalie Olivo

    The international minimum tax agreement known as Pillar Two won't officially factor into upcoming tax bill negotiations in the U.S. Congress, but the global regime's potential grab at U.S. tax revenue could informally influence policy choices.

  • Investments In Energy Tax Credit Boom Could Draw IRS' Eye

    Kat Lucero

    The 2022 climate law's green energy tax incentives sparked a surge of big-ticket development projects nationwide, and tax practitioners expect that the investments could be subject to intense scrutiny from the IRS amid a crackdown on abusive schemes in other areas.

  • Wyden's Pharma Probe Could Build Case For Int'l Tax Reforms

    No Photo Available

    Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden's investigation into the tax planning of major U.S. pharmaceutical companies could help fuel an effort to revamp U.S. international tax laws next year when Congress addresses expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Expert Analysis

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

    Author Photo

    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

    Author Photo

    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

    Author Photo

    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

    Author Photo

    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Tariffs' Economic Downsides Outweigh Potential Revenue

    Author Photo

    Import tariffs proposed by the campaign of former president Donald Trump would generate revenue like other taxes, but policymakers must consider the net-negative impact of associated consumer and downstream-industry costs, harm to exporters, potential foreign retaliation and reduction in economic output, says Erica York at the Tax Foundation.

  • Navigating The Last Leg Of The Worker Retention Tax Credit

    Author Photo

    Whether a business has applied for the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit, received a denial letter or is still considering making a claim before the April 15 deadline, it should examine recent developments significantly affecting the program before planning next steps, say attorneys at Nixon Peabody.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

    Author Photo

    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

    Author Photo

    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

    Author Photo

    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings

    Author Photo

    Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

    Author Photo

    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.