Federal
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May 12, 2025
Biz Groups Back Bill To Expand FDII Tax Benefits
A coalition of business lobbying groups has thrown its weight behind proposed legislation that would expand tax breaks for domestically held intellectual property, saying the changes would build on the goals of the 2017 federal tax overhaul.
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May 12, 2025
Jury Clears Biz Owner's Wife Of $2M Payroll Tax Debt
The wife of a man found liable for construction company employment taxes is off the hook for $2 million in liabilities, a New York federal jury found, saying she was not responsible for collecting the taxes and paying them over to the federal government.
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May 12, 2025
Exxon Wants Chemicals Added To Taxable Substances List
The Internal Revenue Service is seeking comments on proposals to add nine chemicals to its list of taxable substances, eight of which were put forward by Exxon Mobil, the agency said Monday.
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May 09, 2025
'Proud' Judge Says No Prison For $1.3B Tax Fraud Witnesses
A Georgia federal judge handed down a pair of what he called "stunningly lenient" no-prison sentences Friday to two brothers who served as key cooperating witnesses in a first-of-its-kind federal case against a sprawling, $1.3 billion tax fraud scheme.
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May 09, 2025
PL 86-272 Expansion May Face Rocky Path Through Congress
The fate of an element of a House budget reconciliation bill that would broaden state income tax protections for businesses may rest with the Senate parliamentarian's view on whether the provision passes muster under reconciliation rules.
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May 09, 2025
Tariffs And Tax Breaks Offer Risky Lifeline To US Film Industry
President Donald Trump's call for a 100% tariff on films made outside the U.S. has potential to improve a struggling domestic industry if it is considered in conjunction with new federal tax incentives to restore production, but the idea hasn't yet gathered support in Congress, according to lawyers who spoke to Law360.
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May 09, 2025
GOP Unveils Plan To Cement 2017 Tax Cuts, Expand Biz Relief
House Republicans plan to meet Tuesday to deliberate a sweeping extension of their 2017 tax overhaul that would lock in low individual rates and deduction limits, expand child care and estate tax breaks, and make permanent tax incentives for small pass-through businesses and U.S. multinational corporations.
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May 09, 2025
IRS Cuts May Hinder Prep For 2026 If TCJA Is Renewed
Internal Revenue Service staff cuts and retirements could hamper planning for next year's filing season if Congress renews the 2017 tax overhaul this year as planned while withholding resources needed to modernize the agency's systems, a former agency commissioner warned Friday.
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May 09, 2025
US Seeking A Global Minimum Tax Carveout, Official Says
The U.S. tax system is "robust enough" for other countries to refrain permanently from applying the 15% global minimum tax to any income that the U.S. taxes or monitors, but an arrangement must be struck before a safe harbor expires, a Treasury Department official said Friday.
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May 09, 2025
Express Scripts To Appeal Denied Tax Break In $43M Suit
Express Scripts is appealing rulings denying it a $43 million tax refund for domestic production activities after a Missouri federal court said the company did not qualify because it did not grant licenses to pharmacy benefit plan sponsors who used its software, the pharmacy benefit manager said Friday.
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May 09, 2025
Tax Exemption Case May Bring Sweeping Impact, Attys Say
A U.S. Supreme Court case considering a religious exemption to unemployment taxes sought by a charity could have implications across a broad swath of organizations, tax practitioners said Friday.
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May 09, 2025
Souter's Clerks Remember Him As Humble, Kind And Caring
Former clerks of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter are heartbroken over the death of a man many of them remember more for his conscientiousness, humility, kindness and disdain for the spotlight than for his undeniable brilliance as a jurist.
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May 09, 2025
Hiker And 'Raconteur': Atty Recalls 50-Year Bond With Souter
Behind a towering legal legacy was a man who loved to hike mountains, could recall details of things he read decades ago and was always there for those he cared about, a New Hampshire attorney said as he reflected on a lifelong friendship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
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May 09, 2025
A Look At David Souter's Most Significant Opinions
The retired Justice David Souter defied simple definition, viewed as a staunch conservative until he co-wrote an opinion upholding abortion rights in 1992. He did not hew to partisan lines, but reshaped the civil litigation landscape and took an unexpected stand in an extraordinarily close presidential election.
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May 09, 2025
McKernan Out As Trump's ĂŰĚŇĘÓƵ Pick, In For Treasury Role
President Donald Trump will pull Jonathan McKernan's nomination to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and tap him instead for a top domestic finance job at the U.S. Treasury Department, a White House official confirmed to Law360 on Friday.
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May 09, 2025
IRS To Loosen Tax-Free Spinoff Regs, Cut Ordinary Biz Rule
The Internal Revenue Service plans to loosen proposed regulations for corporate separation transactions, known as spinoffs, that the agency approves as tax-free ahead of time, in part by eliminating a standard considering whether actions are taken in the ordinary course of business, officials said Friday.
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May 09, 2025
Family Denies Knowledge Of $81M Tax Avoidance Scheme
The government's claims that members of a deceased theater businessman's family knew or should have known their company stock sale was part of an $81 million purported tax avoidance scheme are baseless, the family members said in a filing in New York federal court.
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May 09, 2025
Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin
The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, included the reference price for enhanced oil recovery tax credits for calendar year 2024.
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May 09, 2025
Justice Souter Was An Unexpected Force Of Moderation
Justice David Souter, who saw the high court as a moderating force apart from the messiness of politics, subverted the expectations of liberals and conservatives alike during his 19 years on the bench.
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May 09, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Paul Weiss, Weil, V&E, Torys
In this week's Taxation With Representation, 3G Capital takes Skechers private, Sunoco LP buys Parkland Corp., and BCE Inc. and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board launch a wholesale network provider called Network FiberCo.
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May 09, 2025
Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter Dies At 85
Retired Justice David H. Souter, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 to 2009, has died at 85, the court announced Friday.Â
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May 08, 2025
Trump Admin Defends Gov't Restructuring As Lawful
The Trump administration defended what it says is a lawful executive order looking to reorganize agencies and terminate workers, telling a California federal judge that unions, nonprofits and local governments "waited far too long" to seek a temporary restraining order.
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May 08, 2025
Hyatt's $300M From Reward Program Is Income, 7th Circ. Told
Hyatt Hotels should have to report nearly $300 million in revenue from a rewards program fund because it benefited from spending the money, including through advertising for its properties, the U.S. government told the Seventh Circuit on Thursday, defending a U.S. Tax Court ruling.
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May 08, 2025
NFTC Warns US Against Tariffs On Semiconductors, Pharma
The Trump administration should work to avoid using tariffs to address the perceived threat to national security caused by importing semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, the National Foreign Trade Council said, calling for extreme caution.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
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The Trade And Tax Issues Behind US-Canada Digital Tax Clash
The new Canadian digital services tax recently went into effect despite objections from the U.S., a controversy that represents an unusual mix of trade and tax policy, and many companies have been pondering how it will affect their e-commerce businesses, says Damon Pike at BDO.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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A Look At How De Minimis Import Rules May Soon Change
The planned implementation of executive actions focused on the de minimis rule as it applies to shipments means companies should use this interval to evaluate the potential applicability and impact of Section 301, Section 201 or Section 232 duties on their products, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Ruling On Foreign Dividend Break Offers 2 Tax Court Insights
In Varian v. Commissioner, the U.S. Tax Court allowed a taxpayer's deduction for dividends from foreign subsidiaries, providing clarity on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision may affect challenges to Treasury regulations, and revealing a potential disallowance of foreign tax credits, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
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It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
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Avoid Getting Burned By Agencies' Solar Financing Spotlight
Recently coordinated reports and advisories from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission maximize the spotlight on the consumer solar financing market and highlight pitfalls for lenders to avoid in this burgeoning field, says Mercedes Tunstall at Cadwalader.
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Tax Traps In Acquisitions Of Financially Distressed Targets
Excerpt from
Parties to the acquisition of an insolvent or bankrupt company face myriad tax considerations, including limitations on using the distressed company's tax benefits, cancellation of indebtedness income, tax lien issues and potential tax reorganizations.
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Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls
Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.