Federal
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June 03, 2025
Irish Court Says US Co.'s Irish Units Not Owed Treaty Benefits
Three Irish subsidiaries cannot benefit from the U.S.-Ireland tax treaty's provision of equally favorable treatment between U.S. and Irish residents because their ultimate parent entity, a Delaware financial firm, is disregarded for U.S. tax purposes, Ireland's Court of Appeal said in a judgment.
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June 03, 2025
The Law360 400: A Look At The Top 100 Firms
A rebound in client work sent the nation’s largest law firms into growth mode last year, driving a wave of hiring, mergers and strategic moves that reshaped the top tier of the Law360 400. Here's a preview of the 100 firms with the largest U.S. attorney headcounts.
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June 03, 2025
Precedent Does Apply To $6.6M Microcaptive Case, Court Told
A captive insurance program operator challenging $6.6 million in tax fraud penalties told a Pennsylvania federal court that the government boldly and incorrectly claimed that the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling requiring a jury to make certain fraud findings doesn't apply to its case.
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June 02, 2025
Budget Bill Would Deepen Residential Solar's Woes
A Sunnova unit's bankruptcy declaration — the latest among dozens of solar companies that have struggled to stay afloat — adds to evidence of a floundering residential solar industry, which now faces further diminishing prospects under the federal budget reconciliation bill.
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June 02, 2025
1st Circ. Largely Backs Convictions For Cop Union Kickbacks
The First Circuit on Monday mostly upheld the convictions of a former Massachusetts state police union president and a Beacon Hill lobbyist who were found guilty of running a kickback scheme, but ordered new sentencing hearings for them after vacating some of the guilty findings.
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June 02, 2025
IRS Issues Interim Regs To Simplify Corp. AMT Determination
The Internal Revenue Service released temporary regulations Monday that offered a simplified method for large companies seeking to determine whether the 15% corporate alternative minimum tax applies to them, as well as penalty relief for those that underpaid the levy this year.
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June 02, 2025
Justices Urged To Reject Bid Disputing IRS Crypto Summons
The U.S. Supreme Court should not take up the case of a bitcoin investor who claimed the IRS violated his privacy when it seized his records from the cryptocurrency exchange, the government argued, saying the case is a poor vehicle for addressing concerns about digital-era transactions.
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June 02, 2025
4 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In May
Massachusetts judges grappled with accusations of fraud in the sale of a struggling life sciences company and gave the benefit of the doubt to a vendor who allegedly sold the state gallons of ineffective hand sanitizer, among other notable rulings last month.
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June 02, 2025
Tax Court Finds No Abuse By IRS In Rejecting Man's Tax Offer
The Internal Revenue Service did not abuse its discretion in rejecting a man's offer in compromise for the balance on a $400,000 tax bill, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Monday, saying the agency properly considered cash in the man's bank account and his current wages.
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June 02, 2025
Halliburton Wants IRS To Release Docs In $35M Tax Dispute
The Internal Revenue Service should be ordered to comply with Halliburton's discovery requests in a dispute over a $35 million deduction for payments the company said it made to a foreign government to protect its employees from harassment, the company told a Texas federal court.
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June 02, 2025
Tax Court Cuts $21M Off Former Ga. Quarry's Deduction Value
A donated 85-acre land plot in Georgia originally valued at nearly $22 million should have been valued around $193,000, the U.S. Tax Court found Monday, agreeing with the Internal Revenue Service.
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June 02, 2025
Vanguard, Investors Renegotiating After $40M Tax Deal Axed
Vanguard and investors have scrapped a $40 million class action deal in a case over surprise tax bills from a fund restructuring and will resume settlement discussions after a Pennsylvania federal judge recently found that the deal could have saddled investors with attorney fees.
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June 02, 2025
Feds Want 12½ Years For Ex-Ill. Speaker Convicted Of Bribery
Prosecutors are urging an Illinois federal judge to sentence former state House Speaker Michael Madigan to prison for 12½ years for bribery, conspiracy and fraud, saying his conduct adds "another sordid chapter to Illinois' storied reputation of corruption" while Madigan, armed with more than 200 letters of support, seeks only probation.
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June 02, 2025
Foley & Lardner Opens In Nashville With 3 Holland & Knight Attys
Foley & Lardner LLP has chosen Nashville as the location for its 27th office worldwide, bringing on three attorneys who had been at Holland & Knight LLP to work on regulatory, tax and transactional matters, the firm announced Monday.
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June 02, 2025
Ex-Atty In $7B Tax Fraud Tells 7th Circ. IRS Can't Collect
A former attorney sentenced to prison in connection with a $7 billion tax fraud told the Seventh Circuit that the Internal Revenue Service lacks the power to collect his court-ordered $371 million restitution, calling the agency's claims against him "wild and scurrilous."
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June 02, 2025
Ex-Par Funding CFO Sentenced To 5½ Years, Must Pay $303M
Joseph Cole Barleta, the last of the triumvirate behind the $404 million Par Funding investment scam to be sentenced, was handed a 66-month prison term Monday, along with a staggering $303 million restitution order.
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June 02, 2025
IRS To Hold Hearing On Sourcing Cloud Transaction Income
The Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Treasury Department will hold a hearing July 17 on proposed rules on the source of income from cloud transactions, they said Monday.
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May 30, 2025
Split 9th Circ. Won't Unblock Trump's Gov't Overhaul
A split Ninth Circuit on Friday refused to lift a California federal judge's preliminary block of President Donald Trump's executive order directing layoffs at federal agencies, handing a win to a coalition of unions, nonprofits and cities that argue the order exceeded the president's authority.
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May 30, 2025
US-China Trade Talks Could Resume After Stall Over Minerals
Stalled trade talks between the U.S. and China could resume with a phone call between the countries' leaders as early as this week, a Trump economic adviser said Sunday.
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May 30, 2025
Convicted Crypto Investor's Wife Says Gov't Can't Seize Funds
The wife of a bitcoin investor sentenced to prison for concealing millions of dollars from the IRS asked a Texas federal court Friday to stop the federal government from taking her money to help make up for $1 million in restitution stemming from his cryptocurrency sales.
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May 30, 2025
IRS Failed To Alert Thousands To Contractor's Data Breach
Approximately 12,200 letters the Internal Revenue Service sent to individuals and businesses whose tax information was stolen by a former agency contractor were undeliverable for issues such as not having complete addresses, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said.
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May 30, 2025
IRS Slow To Convert Nontax Forms To Digital, TIGTA Says
Only 12% of the Internal Revenue Service's 280 nontax paper forms that require one or more signatures have been converted to digital formats, though plans have been made to speed the process, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported.
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May 30, 2025
Pa. Couple Should Pay $1.77M Tax Bill, Judge Says
A Pennsylvania couple who purchased a Maserati and a Porsche and took trips to international destinations while owing the Internal Revenue Service $1.77 million should be required to pay those tax debts, a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge found.
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May 30, 2025
Ohio Judge Slams Eaton For Ongoing IRS Disclosure Fight
An Ohio federal judge denied Eaton Corp.'s bid to withhold foreign employee evaluations from the IRS, ruling Friday that the power management multinational's "astounding amount of effort" to fight disclosure has been a poor use of judicial resources.
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May 30, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Cravath, Latham
In this week's Taxation With Representation, WiseTech completes a $2.1 billion merger with E2open, Acrisure buys a payroll management company for $1.1 billion and Hailey Bieber sells her Rhode skincare and makeup company to e.l.f. beauty for $1 billion.
Expert Analysis
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Justices' False Statement Ruling Curbs Half-Truth Liability
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Thompson v. U.S. decision clarified that a federal statute used to prosecute false statements made to bank regulators only criminalizes outright falsehoods, narrowing prosecutors’ reach and providing defense counsel a stronger basis to challenge indictments of merely misleading statements, says Tamara de Silva at De Silva Law Offices.
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Perfecting Security Interests In Renewable Energy Tax Credits
The ability to transfer renewable energy tax credits has created new opportunities for developers, investors and lenders, but it also raises important questions regarding when and how the security interests in these credits are perfected — questions that must be answered definitively to protect credit claims and transactions, says Harry Teichman at Stinson.
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Firms Still Have Lateral Market Advantage, But Risks Persist
Partner and associate mobility data from the fourth quarter of 2024 shows that we’re in a new, stable era of lateral hiring where firms have the edge, but leaders should proceed cautiously, looking beyond expected revenue and compensation analyses for potential risks, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Making The Opportunity Zones Program Great At Last
As the opportunity zone program approaches its expiration, the Republican-led government could take specific steps to extend and improve the program, address its structural flaws, encourage broader participation and enable it to live up to its promised outcomes, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
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We Must Allow Judges To Use Their Independent Judgment
As two recent cases show, the ability of judges to access their independent judgment crucially enables courts to exercise the discretion needed to reach the right outcome based on the unique facts within the law, says John Siffert at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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Preparing For Tariffs On Canadian Power In The Northeast
The on-again, off-again risk of import and export tariffs on energy transactions between the U.S. and Canada may have repercussions for U.S. energy stakeholders in the ISO New England and New York Independent System Operator electricity markets — but there are options that could help reduce cost impacts, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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Making The Case For Rest In The Legal Profession
For too long, a culture of overwork has plagued the legal profession, but research shows that attorneys need rest to perform optimally and sustainably, so legal organizations and individuals must implement strategies that allow for restoration, says Marissa Alert at MDA Wellness, Carol Ross-Burnett at CRB Global, and Denise Robinson at The Still Center.
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Mitigating Tariff Risks For Healthcare In US And Canada
Healthcare stakeholders should take steps to evaluate the impact of cross-border tariffs, as the historically strong ties between Canada and the U.S. demonstrate the potential for real disruption and harm to the healthcare industry in both countries, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy
This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.
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A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.
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Why NY May Want To Reconsider Its LLC Transparency Law
Against the backdrop of the myriad challenges to the federal Corporate Transparency Act, it may be prudent for New York to reconsider its adoption of the LLC Transparency Act, since it's unclear whether the Empire State's "baby-CTA" statute is still necessary or was passed prematurely, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
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IRS Scrutiny May Underlie Move Away From NIL Collectives
The University of Colorado's January announcement that it was severing its partnership with a name, image and likeness collective is part of universities' recent push to move NIL activities in-house, seemingly motivated by tax implications and increased scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.
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7 Tips For Associates To Thrive In Hybrid Work Environments
Excerpt from
As the vast majority of law firms have embraced some type of hybrid work policy, associates should consider a few strategies to get the most out of both their in-person and remote workdays, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.