Federal
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July 30, 2025
Senate Panel Advances 2 Bipartisan Bills Boosting ESOPs
A key Senate panel advanced two bills Wednesday that would change federal benefits law related to employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, by providing businesses additional legal cover when they make company stock valuations and by adding ESOP representatives to a federal advisory board.
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July 30, 2025
Tax Overhaul Is Mixed Bag For Interest Expense Deductions
Companies that are eager to increase their interest expense deductions under the new federal tax overhaul may end up with a smaller tax break than expected due to how the law factors their foreign income into the deduction calculation.
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July 30, 2025
Groups Warn IRS Policy Shift Could Beget Dark Money Deluge
Leaders of national nonprofit organizations said Wednesday that the IRS' efforts to weaken a 71-year-old tax law banning churches from endorsing political candidates would lead to unlimited amounts of untraceable campaign contributions flowing through the nonprofit sector.
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July 30, 2025
Dechert Adds Tax Pro From PwC In DC
Dechert LLP has continued to grow its financial services platform in Washington, D.C., with the hire of a partner from PwC.
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July 30, 2025
Trump To Hit India With 25% Tariff, 'Penalty' Starting Friday
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he planned to impose a 25% tariff on India beginning Friday, plus an additional "penalty," citing the country's energy and defense dealings with Russia as top concerns along with trade barriers.
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July 29, 2025
IRS To Permit Corp. AMT Top-Down Election For Partnerships
The IRS said Tuesday that revised proposed rules for the corporate alternative minimum tax will accommodate different approaches to calculating a partnership's investment income, including the top-down approach permitting a corporate partner to use figures that the partner reported in its own financial statement.
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July 29, 2025
Economists Decry Federal Budget's Looser Interest Deduction
It's regrettable that Congress loosened rules allowing companies to deduct interest costs from tax liabilities in its latest budget, which as a whole is poised to worsen the country's fiscal trajectory while prompting higher interest rates, a panel of economists said Tuesday.
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July 29, 2025
Refiners Seek Clarity From Treasury For Clean Fuel Credit
The U.S. Treasury Department should clarify at what points during the refining process an oil and gas mixture qualifies for the clean fuel production tax credit to be consistent with its preceding incentive for biofuels, an oil and gas refining association said in a letter released Tuesday.
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July 29, 2025
Ensure Energy Tax Credit Limit On Foreign Cos., Letter Says
The U.S. Department of the Treasury should publish guidance aimed at preventing foreign corporations from circumventing the new budget law's limits on energy tax credits by starting construction before the restrictions kick in, a solar technology and manufacturing company said in a letter Tuesday.
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July 29, 2025
Ex-IRS Acting Commissioner Joins KPMG's DC Office
A former senior Internal Revenue Service employee who served as the agency's acting commissioner this year has joined KPMG LLP's Washington national tax practice as a senior managing director, the firm announced.
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July 29, 2025
4th Circ. Rejects BofA's Claim Of Tax Offsets After Mergers
Bank of America cannot use its tax overpayments to offset interest on tax underpayments by Merrill Lynch just because the two companies later merged, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Tuesday in a $163 million case that affects more than 20 years' worth of tax adjustments.
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July 29, 2025
IRS Wrong To Fight Flexible Tax Court Deadline, 8th Circ. Told
A couple arguing for flexibility to the 90-day deadline for challenging tax bills in the U.S. Tax Court told the Eighth Circuit that the Internal Revenue Service is wrong in claiming that such leniency would upend tax collection.
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July 28, 2025
New IRS Chief Rejects 'Wizard Of Oz'-Style Leadership
New Internal Revenue Commissioner Billy Long vowed Monday to engage more directly with agency employees to improve taxpayer service, emphasizing that he does not want to be a "Wizard of Oz"-style leader hiding behind a curtain.
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July 28, 2025
SALT Cap Complexity Could Rewrite Tax Planning Strategies
The new $40,000 cap on state and local tax deductibility in the GOP's 2025 tax overhaul will likely prompt a new wave of strategic tax planning activity among wealthy business owners and individuals seeking to maximize their deductions and make use of state-level workarounds before the temporary relief expires.
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July 28, 2025
Fired Worker Owes Tax On $1.5M Settlement, Tax Court Says
A former PNC Investments LLC employee who won a defamation settlement after being fired must pay tax on the $1.5 million award, the U.S. Tax Court said Monday, rejecting the ex-worker's argument that the money didn't count as income.
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July 28, 2025
10th Circ. Says Carbon Group Can't Appeal Tax Assessment
An entity that owns interest in a carbon producer can't appeal a $2 million tax assessment made by a Colorado county on a carbon unit operator that the entity owns interest in because the federal court doesn't have jurisdiction, the Tenth Circuit said Monday.
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July 28, 2025
Trailer Maker's Bid To Escape $4M Excise Taxes Dismissed
A trailer manufacturer can't avoid more than $4 million in excise taxes, interest and penalties, a South Dakota federal court ruled, finding it couldn't rely on an exemption from a technical advice memorandum after Congress altered the definition of off-highway vehicles.
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July 28, 2025
US, Japanese Businessman Settle $11.6M FBAR Dispute
A Japanese businessman and the federal government have settled their $11.6 million tax filing dispute after the man claimed a language barrier was to blame and the U.S. tried to push past a jury's verdict, according to a Hawaii federal court filing.
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July 25, 2025
Trump Trade Deals Do Little To Ease Importers' Concerns
President Donald Trump's recently announced framework trade deals offer new insight into tariff rates for several countries come Aug. 1, but experts say unanswered questions about those agreements and others still at large continue to stifle longer-term planning, leaving importers in uncertain territory.
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July 25, 2025
Ex-Credit Suisse Client Gets 2½ Years For Hiding Assets
A Florida federal judge on Friday sentenced a Colombian-American businesswoman and former Credit Suisse client to two and a half years in prison for conspiring with family members to hide more than $90 million in assets from the IRS through a series of foreign bank accounts.
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July 25, 2025
Mayo Clinic's $11.5M Tax Refund Affirmed By 8th Circ.
The Mayo Clinic qualifies as an "educational organization" under federal tax law, making it eligible for a tax exemption for such organizations and meriting a nearly $11.5 million refund, the Eighth Circuit said Friday, affirming a federal district court.
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July 25, 2025
Vegas Workers Laud Tax Breaks On Tips, OT At Hearing
The new federal tax deductions for tips and overtime pay will be extremely beneficial to working-class residents of Las Vegas, the House Ways and Means Committee heard from workers and others at a field hearing Friday, while Democrats criticized the temporary nature of the tax breaks.
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July 25, 2025
Rising Star: Gibson Dunn's Michael Q. Cannon
Michael Q. Cannon of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP has been the lead attorney on several high-profile cases, including playing a key role in advising on the tax aspects of the world's largest merger and acquisition deal in 2023, earning him a spot among the tax law practitioners under age 40 honored by ݮƵ as Rising Stars.
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July 25, 2025
IRS Provides Guidance Meant To Speed Up Corporate Audits
The Internal Revenue Service released guidance Friday that aims to make audits more efficient for corporate taxpayers, including by phasing out a document request process taxpayers had criticized as time-consuming and of little value.
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July 25, 2025
Legal Org. Urges DC Circ. To Reject Trump's Tariff Powers
The D.C. Circuit should affirm a ruling that sided with toy makers and blocked President Donald Trump from using an international economic law to impose emergency tariffs because the law does not give the president the authority he claims, a legal organization argued.
Expert Analysis
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IRS Should Revise Overbroad Microcaptive Regs
Rather than seeking to curtail use of congressionally sanctioned microcaptive insurance programs by imposing burdensome disclosure obligations, the Internal Revenue Service should revisit its recently finalized regulations and implement rules tailored to address areas of specific abuse, say attorneys at Zerbe Miller.
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Terraform Case May Be Bellwether For Crypto Enforcement
The prosecution of crypto company Terraform Labs and its CEO, Do Kwon, offers a unique test of the line between lawful and unlawful conduct in digital transactions, and the Trump administration’s posture toward the case will provide clues about its cryptocurrency enforcement agenda in the years to come, say attorneys at Brooks Pierce.
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How Law Firms Can Counteract The Loneliness Epidemic
The legal industry is facing an urgent epidemic of loneliness, affecting lawyer well-being, productivity, retention and profitability, and law firm leaders should take concrete steps to encourage the development of genuine workplace connections, says Michelle Gomez at Littler and Gwen Mellor Romans at Herald Talent.
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Texas Fraud Case Shows Dangers Of Faulty Crypto Reporting
The recent sentencing of a man who failed to properly report capital gains from bitcoin sales is a reminder that special attention must be given to the IRS' reporting requirements in order to stay out of the government's crosshairs, says Saverio Romeo at Fox Rothschild.
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Potential Impacts Of IRS' $1M Affiliate Pay Deduction Cap
If finalized, a recent Internal Revenue Service proposal expanding Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code to include the highly compensated employees of affiliates would make tracking which executives may be subject to the limit from year to year far more complex, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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5 Keys To Building Stronger Attorney-Client Relationships
Attorneys are often focused on being seen as the expert, but bonding with clients and prospects by sharing a few key personal details provides the basis for a caring, trusted and profoundly deeper business relationship, says Deb Feder at Feder Development.
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Notable Q4 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
In a continuation of trends in property and casualty insurance class actions, last quarter insurers struggled with defending the merits and class certification of sales tax and fee suits, and labor depreciation cases, but succeeded in dismissing privacy class actions at the pleading stages, says Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.
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Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence
Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.
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Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
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How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work
Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.
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Justices' Certiorari Denial Leaves Interstate Tax Questions
Since the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to review a Philadelphia resident’s claim that her Delaware state income taxes should be credited against her city wage tax liabilities, constitutional questions about state and local tax distinctions linger, and some states may continue to apply Supreme Court precedent differently, say attorneys at Dentons.
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Corp. Transparency Act's Future Under Treasury's Bessent
The Corporate Transparency Act’s ultimate fate faced uncertain terms at the end of 2024, but new U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's statements and actions so far demonstrate that he does not intend to ignore the law, though he may attempt to make modifications, say attorneys at Taylor English.
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A Look At A Possible Corporate Transparency Act Exemption
Attorneys at Kirkland offer a deep dive into the application of the Corporate Transparency Act's reporting requirements specifically to U.S.-domiciled co-issuers in typical collateralized loan obligation transactions, and consider whether such issuers may be able to assert an exemption from the CTA's reporting requirements.