Federal
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May 08, 2025
Widow Says Husband's Estate Liable For $2M FBAR Fines
A nonagenarian widow told an Idaho federal court Thursday that her husband's estate — not she — should be liable for more than $2 million in penalties for his unreported foreign accounts, calling the government's attempt to penalize her an unprecedented overreach.
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May 08, 2025
11th Circ. Judge Frowns On New Arguments In Easement Case
An Eleventh Circuit judge disapproved of a Georgia partnership raising new arguments on appeal as it pursues a tax deduction for a conservation easement donation, saying Thursday that perhaps "we wouldn't be here" if the partnership had argued the points before the lower court.
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May 08, 2025
Milbank Hires King & Spalding Tax Planning Atty In DC
Milbank LLP has added a former King & Spalding LLP tax attorney as a partner in its global project, energy and infrastructure finance group in Washington, D.C.
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May 07, 2025
Bessent Defends Cuts To Community Fund Amid Scrutiny
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday defended the Trump administration's proposal to significantly slash the fund that operates the new markets tax credit, which is meant to boost investment in poor communities, telling lawmakers that a new $100 million program would better support affordable financing in rural areas.
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May 07, 2025
Favorable Tax Cut Baseline Won't Fool Lenders, House Told
If Congress uses a current policy baseline to permanently extend the 2017 tax overhaul's provisions, it will be a red flag to institutional investors, such as hedge funds, mutual funds and endowments, panelists told the House Budget Committee on Wednesday.
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May 07, 2025
Tax Court Rejects Couple's Case For Lacking Evidence
A couple who challenged what the Internal Revenue Service said was their more than $650,000 in tax debt provided no evidence that the number was wrong, the U.S. Tax Court said in a bench opinion released Wednesday.
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May 07, 2025
11th Circ. Backs Frivolous Argument Ruling Against Teacher
A Georgia high school teacher who claimed that he didn't have to pay taxes on his salary and that income taxes are unconstitutional must pay $25,000 in court sanctions under an Eleventh Circuit ruling affirming a U.S. Tax Court decision.
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May 07, 2025
Don't Scrap US-China Tax Treaty, Biz Groups Tell Treasury
Business lobbying groups have urged the U.S. Treasury Department to reject the White House's plans to scrutinize the U.S.-China tax treaty, warning that scrapping the accord would lead to higher Chinese taxes on U.S. companies.
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May 07, 2025
Feds Seek 13 Years In Avenatti's California Resentencing
California federal prosecutors asked a judge Wednesday to sentence Michael Avenatti to 160 months in prison for tax fraud and stealing from clients, to be served atop the five-year term imposed in a pair of New York cases where Avenatti was convicted of trying to extort Nike Inc. and defrauding former client Stormy Daniels.
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May 07, 2025
6th Circ. Skeptical Of US In Tax Court Deadline Case
Sixth Circuit judges expressed skepticism of the U.S. government's claim that the 90-day deadline to petition the U.S. Tax Court is inflexible, with one judge saying during oral arguments Wednesday in a woman's case challenging the rule that the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to back her.
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May 07, 2025
Device Seller Asks For Probation In $2.4M Tax Evasion Case
The septuagenarian owner of a Florida medical device company who pled guilty to evading $2.4 million in taxes asked a federal district court Wednesday for his sentence to entail home probation and not prison, given his health challenges and payments he already made to the Internal Revenue Service.
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May 07, 2025
IRS To Open Applications For Low-Income Tax Clinic Grants
The Internal Revenue Service will begin accepting applications May 15 for its grant program for organizations providing tax services to low-income people or people who speak English as a second language, it announced Wednesday.
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May 06, 2025
Fed. Circ. Agrees Plane Taxability Patent Doesn't Fly
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive an Ohio company's patent that covers using Federal Aviation Administration data to determine "the taxability status of aircraft," agreeing that it covered subject matter that isn't patentable.
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May 06, 2025
Tax Court Erred In Slashing $23M Easement, 11th Circ. Told
A partnership told the Eleventh Circuit that the U.S. Tax Court erred in substantially reducing its claim to a $23 million conservation easement tax deduction, arguing the decision was tainted by error-riddled criteria used by the IRS to value the property.
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May 06, 2025
Military Moving-Cost Deduction Nixed For Civilian Contractor
A civilian contractor for the U.S. Air Force cannot deduct her moving expenses because she is not considered a member of the military for purposes of the deduction, the U.S. Tax Court said in a bench opinion released Tuesday.
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May 06, 2025
Actor Voight, Film Biz Adviser To Trump, Floats Tax Incentives
Actor Jon Voight, whom President Donald Trump tapped as an adviser on the Hollywood film industry, told Trump that tax incentives, international treaties and limited tariffs could revitalize production, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom separately floated a $7.5 billion federal film tax credit, according to statements shared Tuesday with Law360.
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May 06, 2025
Stationery Co. Fights Bid To Move Tariff Case To Trade Court
The U.S. Court of International Trade does not have exclusive jurisdiction to hear disputes over President Donald Trump's global tariffs, a stationery company told a Florida federal court Monday in opposing the administration's bid to transfer to the suit.
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May 06, 2025
IRS Narrows Benefit Plan Sponsors Subject To New Rules
The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday narrowed the group of defined benefit plan sponsors that will be subject to certain requirements related to agency approval to use mortality tables that start in January.
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May 06, 2025
Bessent Eyes IRS' Technology Budget For Major Cuts
The Internal Revenue Service must cut its bloated technology budget and decrease the agency's overall spending, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a House Appropriations panel Tuesday.
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May 06, 2025
Eversheds Sutherland Brings On EY Tax Pro In Atlanta
Eversheds Sutherland has added a former EY senior manager of international tax and transaction services to its Atlanta office, further strengthening its tax practice after adding a dozen tax controversy attorneys from Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry PC in March, the firm announced Tuesday.
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May 06, 2025
4th Circ. Seems Split On BofA's Post-Merger Tax Offset Claims
The Fourth Circuit seemed split Tuesday on whether Bank of America should be able to use its tax overpayments to offset interest on tax underpayments by companies that merged into it, with one judge pressing the government to respond to what he described as the bank's "common sense" argument in the $163 million case.
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May 05, 2025
Credit Suisse To Pay Feds $510.6M For Helping Hide Assets
Credit Suisse Services AG has agreed to shell out more than $510 million under agreements with federal prosecutors in which the company admitted to helping customers hide more than $4 billion from the IRS in hundreds of offshore accounts, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
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May 05, 2025
Feds Say Calif. Tribe's Challenge To Cig Ruling Is 'Fruitless'
The federal government is urging a California federal court not to pause a ruling affirming the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' decision to place a native tribe on a noncompliance list over cigarette sales, saying the tribe shouldn't be able to upend the status quo as it pursues a "fruitless" appeal to the Ninth Circuit.
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May 05, 2025
Trump Seeks 100% Tariff On Foreign-Made Movies
President Donald Trump asked his administration to place a 100% tariff on foreign-made movies, with a spokesperson telling Law360 on Monday that a final decision on the plan hadn't been made.
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May 05, 2025
Minn. Tribe Looks To Weigh In On 3,000-Acre Land Trust Row
The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe has asked a Minnesota federal judge to let it file a friend of the court brief in a county's case claiming the U.S. government wrongly accepted more than 3,000 acres of land into trust for the tribe.
Expert Analysis
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Congress Should Pass Sex Abuse Settlement Tax Exemptions
The proposed Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act would expand tax exemptions more clearly for sexual abuse cases, and finally remove the stigma around compensation for emotional and psychological damage, says Rocco Strangio at Milestone & Co.
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What's Next For Accounting Enforcement After SEC's Big 2024
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Trump administration will likely continue to focus enforcement efforts on many of the same accounting and auditing issues that it pursued over the past year — but other areas, such as ESG, internal controls and cryptocurrency cases, may fall out of focus, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Mentorship Resolutions For The New Year
Attorneys tend to focus on personal achievements or career milestones when they set yearly goals, but one important area often gets overlooked in this process — mentoring relationships, which are some of the most effective tools for professional growth, say Kelly Galligan at Rutan & Tucker and Andra Greene at Phillips ADR.
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Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025
Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win
Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.
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Small Biz Caught In Corporate Transparency Act Crossfire
Despite compliance being put on hold due to a nationwide preliminary injunction, small businesses have been caught in the middle of the legal battle over the Corporate Transparency Act — and confusion over the law's requirements could result in major penalties, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.
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No, Litigation Funders Are Not 'Fleeing' The District Of Del.
A recent study claimed that litigation funders have “fled” Delaware federal court due to a standing order requiring disclosure of third-party financing, but responsible funders have no problem litigating in this jurisdiction, and many other factors could explain the decline in filings, say Will Freeman and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.
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Hydrogen Regs Will Provide More Certainty — If They Survive
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Newly finalized regulations implementing the Section 45V clean hydrogen tax credit allow producers more flexibility, and should therefore help put the industry on more solid footing — but the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress will have multiple options for overturning or altering the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2025 And Beyond
In the year to come, e-discovery will be shaped by new and emerging trends, from the adoption of artificial intelligence provisions in protective orders, to the proliferation of emojis as a source of evidence in contemporary litigation, say attorneys at Littler.
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What's Ahead As Transparency Act Comes To A Crossroads
Synthesizing the contrasting federal district and appellate court rulings on the Corporate Transparency Act’s validity reveals several main areas of debate that will likely remain at issue as challenges to the law continue winding through the courts, say attorneys at Farella Braun.
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Final Hydrogen Tax Credit Regs Add Flexibility For Producers
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The recently released final regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act's clean hydrogen production tax credit offer taxpayers greater flexibility, reducing risk and creating more certainty for investments in the industry, thus diminishing — but not eliminating — the risk of legal challenges to the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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5 Evolving Concerns For Family Offices In 2025
Complex regulatory changes and emerging operational risks will force family offices to stay on their toes in 2025, with timely action particularly necessary to address several tax and reporting developments that may affect their investments and business operations, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.