Federal
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July 23, 2025
Fund Manager Drops Case Over NYC Tax ALJ Shortage
A New York fund manager that claimed in federal court that a shortage of administrative law judges in New York City's Tax Appeals Tribunal gave it no avenue for its assessment challenge has dropped the federal case.
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July 23, 2025
Indiana CPA Gets 3 Years In Royalty Payment Tax Scheme
An Indiana accountant received a three-year prison sentence for willfully preparing tax returns for clients who inappropriately claimed millions of dollars worth of business deductions based on false royalty payments made for using intellectual property, according to federal prosecutors.
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July 23, 2025
US Says It's Immune In Booz Allen Worker Tax Info Leak Suit
A proposed class action seeking to hold the federal government and its contractor Booz Allen Hamilton responsible for a leak of thousands of wealthy people's tax returns, including President Donald Trump's, cannot move forward against the U.S., the government argued Wednesday, saying it's immune from the suit.
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July 23, 2025
Rising Star: Freshfields' Joe Soltis
Joe Soltis of Freshfields LLP has advised companies on several multibillion-dollar transactions, including Cencora's $4.6 billion acquisition of Retina Consultants of America, earning him a spot among the tax law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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July 23, 2025
Katten Welcomes Ex-Gibson Dunn Tax Pro In New York
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced on Tuesday that it has added a former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP of counsel to its transactional tax planning practice, noting her extensive experience in the finance space.
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July 23, 2025
IRS Cuts May Hamper State Tax Enforcement, Officials Warn
Heads of state tax agencies warned Wednesday that recent cuts in IRS staffing may cause gaps in state-level tax enforcement, as agencies rely on information from the federal government to bolster auditing efforts.
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July 23, 2025
GOP Reps. Probe Tax-Exempt Organ Recovery Orgs
Two House Ways and Means Committee Republicans demanded Wednesday that three tax-exempt organ procurement organizations provide the committee with financial records, flight logs, Medicare reimbursements and other documents following allegations of potential Medicare reimbursement fraud.
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July 23, 2025
Feds Launch Forfeiture Suit For $7M In Fraud-Linked Crypto
The acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington said she is pushing for the forfeiture of about $7 million in cryptocurrency assets seized as part of an investigation into an oil and gas investment fraud scheme.
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July 23, 2025
Gunster Adds Ex-Aballi Milne Wealth Attorney In Miami
Florida business law firm Gunster added a new of counsel as well as three associates to bolster its capabilities in tax, private wealth and immigration law in South Florida.
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July 23, 2025
Tax Co. Owner Gets 42 Months For $3.6M COVID Loan Scheme
The owner of a Chicago tax preparation company was sentenced to more than three years in prison for making fraudulent applications for pandemic-era relief loans and ordered to pay $3.6 million in restitution to lenders who made unwarranted payouts, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
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July 23, 2025
Why Private REITs Are Having A Moment
Investments in private real estate investment trusts are surging, and that trend may strengthen as state regulators mull limiting investments in other, quasi-public REITs, while securities regulators have recently eased accreditation requirements for investors raising private capital.
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July 22, 2025
Trump Says US Has Reached 'Exciting' Trade Deal With Japan
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States has entered into a "massive" trade deal with Japan under which Japan will "open their country to trade, including cars and trucks, rice and certain other agricultural products" and pay a 15% tariff.
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July 22, 2025
Civil Rights Org. Backs 2nd Suit Over Tariffs, In Texas
The New Civil Liberties Alliance is representing two businesses and a trade association in Texas federal court in a suit filed on Monday against the federal government — the second suit the alliance has taken on to fight President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs.
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July 22, 2025
FTA Communicating With IRS On New Federal Tax Changes
The Federation of Tax Administrators has talked with the Internal Revenue Service about how the recent federal tax changes will be carried out, and it plans to communicate with state representatives to help them with the new law, the FTA's top official said Tuesday.
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July 22, 2025
Tax Court Clears IRS Supervisor In La. Easement Penalty Row
An IRS supervisor timely reviewed and approved civil penalties assessed against a real estate partnership that the agency determined to have inappropriately reported a $60 million charitable tax deduction on a land easement donated to a Louisiana conservation organization, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Tuesday.
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July 22, 2025
Senate Panel Approves Sidley Partner To Be Top Treasury Atty
The Senate Finance Committee approved President Donald Trump's nomination of a Sidley Austin LLP partner to be general counsel of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, sending his nomination to the full Senate for consideration.
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July 22, 2025
Archer & Greiner Lands Cullen And Dykman Tax Leader In NJ
Archer & Greiner PC has added the former leader of Cullen and Dykman LLP's tax department as a partner, who brings her expertise in mergers and acquisitions and other transactions to the firm.Â
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July 22, 2025
IRS Issues Employer Payment Index For Coverage Penalties
The Internal Revenue Service provided indexing adjustments Tuesday for calculating penalties against large employers that don't offer health insurance to their full-time workers or whose full-time workers opt to enroll in government-subsidized health coverage using premium tax credits.
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July 22, 2025
Rising Star: Kirkland's Devin Heckman
Devin Heckman of Kirkland & Ellis LLP has advised clients on the tax aspects of several multibillion-dollar acquisitions involving technology and healthcare companies, forging ongoing relationships and earning him a spot among the tax attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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July 22, 2025
Tax Software Co. Avalara, Universal Music Submit IPO Plans
Avalara Inc. and music giant Universal Music Group NV have confidentially filed plans for initial public offerings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, marking the latest two companies to join the private-to-public pipeline.
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July 22, 2025
3 Takeaways From Budget Law's Opportunity Zone Revamp
The federal opportunity zone program was significantly revamped under the sweeping tax and spending legislation that President Donald Trump signed this month, and tax professionals say there are three key changes, including one aimed at boosting investment in rural areas.
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July 22, 2025
IRS Workforce Has Nosedived 25% Since February
More than 25,000 Internal Revenue Service employees have left since February, a 25% overall reduction in staff driven mostly by workers who took a downsizing deal allowing them to resign while still being paid, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said Tuesday.
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July 22, 2025
US Expatriations Over 1,000 Again In 2nd Quarter
While about 200 fewer people expatriated from the U.S. in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the first quarter, the number still totaled above 1,000, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.
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July 21, 2025
Tax-Lien Biz Atty Tells Jury He Didn't Seek To Dupe Lender
Counsel for a former compliance lawyer accused of pilfering from a $20 million line of credit extended to his tax-lien investment firm told a Manhattan federal jury Monday that the defendant was "sloppy," but never intended fraud.
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July 21, 2025
9th Circ. Urged To Rethink Denial Of Bad Debt Deduction
A business owner asked the Ninth Circuit to rethink its denial of his $86 million bad debt deduction, saying the court dismissed thousands of pages of exhibits in concluding that his debt arose from loans between his companies and was not actually worthless.
Expert Analysis
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Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.
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Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example
Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines
KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.
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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.
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When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law
In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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What Compensation Committees Must Keep In Mind In 2025
New disclosure obligations, an evolving discussion on the analysis of executive perks and updated proxy adviser policies — on top of a new presidential administration — are all important things compensation committees must pay close attention to in 2025, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Anticipating Direction Of Cosmetics Regulation Under Trump
It is unclear how cosmetics regulation reform from the last few years will fare under President Donald Trump, but the new administration's emphasis on deregulation and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s views on product safety provide some insight, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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IRS Basis-Shifting Rule Poses Notable Reporting Obligations
While the IRS’ recently finalized rule requiring partnerships to report certain related-party basis adjustment transactions is narrower than originally proposed, taxpayers and their advisers will still need to comb through myriad transactions to comply, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering
Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.
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Litigation Funding Disclosure Debate: Strategy Considerations
In the ongoing debate over whether courts should require disclosure of litigation funding, funders and plaintiffs tend to argue against such mandates, but voluntarily disclosing limited details about a funding arrangement can actually confer certain benefits to plaintiffs in some scenarios, say Andrew Stulce and Marc Cavan at Longford Capital.
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Top Considerations For Insurance Companies In 2025
As insurance industry participants look to plan for the year, regulatory changes, climate-related challenges, the ongoing effects of social inflation and the potential for significant mergers and acquisitions will be among the key items for insurer boards and management to have on their radar, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Scope And Nature Of Judicial Relief Will Affect Loper's Impact
The practical result of post-Loper Bright rulings against regulatory actions will depend on the relief courts grant — and there has been controversy in these types of cases over whether the ruling is applied just to the parties or nationwide, and whether the action can be left in place while it's corrected, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.
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5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates
In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.