Federal
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August 07, 2025
Vanguard, Investors Agree To Settle After Axed $40M Tax Deal
Vanguard and investors have reached a second deal in a suit over allegations of surprise tax bills from a fund restructuring after a Pennsylvania federal judge scrapped a previous settlement in which the class would have fetched $40 million, the parties said Thursday.
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August 07, 2025
Fed. Circ. Skeptical Of Realty Co.'s IRS Contract Dispute
Federal Circuit judges seemed skeptical Thursday of a realty company's claim that the IRS improperly blocked its bid to continue leasing office space to the agency after IRS employees complained about the building, with one judge challenging whether evidence actually showed the agency acted in bad faith.
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August 07, 2025
German Carmakers Press EU To Secure Tariff Relief Quickly
A German automaker association urged the European Union to finalize its trade deal with the U.S. to relieve the car manufacturing industry of the pressure of tariffs.
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August 06, 2025
Under Pressure, Higher Ed Leans On Real Estate
As institutions of higher education contend with declining enrollment and federal funding cuts, some are finding creative ways to monetize their real estate, which comes with important legal considerations, according to attorneys.
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August 06, 2025
Ex-Homeowners Seek OK On Tax Foreclosure Suit Deal
A proposed class of former property owners asked a Michigan federal judge Tuesday to give initial support to a settlement with several counties that would allow the ex-homeowners to receive the surplus profits they allege the county treasurers made selling their tax-delinquent properties.
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August 06, 2025
No IRS Error In Lien Against Lawyer, Tax Court Says
The IRS' appeals office did nothing wrong in sustaining a tax lien against an attorney who asked for other ways of paying what the agency said was her $43,000 tax debt, the U.S. Tax Court ruled Wednesday, saying the lawyer was offered lower payment options.
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August 06, 2025
Troutman Adds Former Fannie Mae Associate GC In DC
The former associate general counsel at the Federal National Mortgage Association, who spent the past decade as a tax partner with Morris Manning & Martin LLP, has joined Troutman Pepper Locke LLP in the nation's capital, the firm announced Wednesday.
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August 06, 2025
G7's Tax Carveout For US Cos. Raises EU State Aid Questions
The Group of Seven nations' deal to exclude U.S. companies from Pillar Two minimum tax rules would give those companies a competitive advantage, experts say, prompting questions about the carveout's compatibility with EU state aid rules and whether a viable path exists to challenge the deal.
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August 06, 2025
3 Key Foreign Entity Issues In Claiming Clean Energy Credits
Stricter foreign supply chain and business ownership rules were tacked onto clean energy tax credits that weren't eliminated under the new budget reconciliation law, raising major compliance hurdles that have practitioners eagerly awaiting implementation rules from the U.S. Treasury Department. Here, Law360 outlines key issues the agencies need to address in coming guidance on restrictions targeting projects linked to foreign entities of concern.
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August 06, 2025
DOJ Says $47M Fat Brands Tax Case Not A Priority
The U.S. Department of Justice quit prosecuting Fat Brands and its founder on charges of helping hide $47 million from the IRS because of guidance from DOJ leaders that emphasized other priorities, including enforcement against cartels, the department told a California federal court.
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August 05, 2025
GAO Denies Co.'s Protest Of $49M IRS Task Order
The U.S. Government Accountability Office denied a Virginia company's protest of a $49 million task order issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for information technology services support, saying it was not competitively prejudiced during the procurement process.
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August 05, 2025
AICPA Pushes For Guidance On Renewed R&D Tax Break
The U.S. Department of the Treasury needs to issue guidance immediately allowing taxpayers to deduct research and development costs incurred in 2024 on their originally filed federal income tax returns for that year, the American Institute of CPAs said in a letter released Tuesday.
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August 05, 2025
McGuireWoods Adds Loeb & Loeb Tax Pro In Los Angeles
McGuireWoods LLP is enhancing its corporate team, announcing Tuesday it is bringing in a Loeb & Loeb LLP tax expert as a partner in its Los Angeles office in Century City.
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August 05, 2025
Simpson Thacher Adds Tax, Funds Pro From Dechert
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced Monday that it has continued its growth in the tax and registered funds spaces, welcoming a partner from Dechert LLP to its New York office.
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August 05, 2025
Swiss President Hustles To DC To Address 39% Tariff
Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter traveled Tuesday to Washington, D.C., for trade talks with the White House after Switzerland was hit with a 39% tariff on exports to the United States.
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August 05, 2025
IRS Floats Update To System For Fringe Benefits
The Internal Revenue Service floated rules Tuesday that would change its system of business classification for employees hoping to exclude fringe benefits and employee discounts from their gross income at tax time.
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August 05, 2025
Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Tax Whistleblower's Reward Suit
The government was not required to give a bigger whistleblower award to a former auditor who helped the Internal Revenue Service recover $180,000 in taxes, the Federal Circuit said Tuesday, affirming a ruling that a lower court lacked authority to hear her case.
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August 05, 2025
IRS Has Spent Nearly $5B Of Funding Boost In 2025
The Internal Revenue Service has spent nearly $5 billion so far this fiscal year of the funding it received under the Inflation Reduction Act, including $2.1 billion for operations support, the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration said in a report released Tuesday.
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August 04, 2025
Tax Court Declares Grocery Chain's In-House Insurer Ineligible
A grocery store chain's in-house insurance company did not operate as a normal insurer and therefore cannot deduct millions of dollars it received in insurance premiums, the U.S. Tax Court said Monday.
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August 04, 2025
NY Atty Found Guilty Of Duping Lender Who Backed Lien Biz
A Manhattan federal jury on Monday convicted a former compliance lawyer of pilfering from a $20 million line of credit extended to his tax-lien business by a subsidiary of Emigrant Bank.
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August 04, 2025
Duane Morris Avoids Employee's Tax Withholding Claim
A Duane Morris LLP employee cannot bring a claim that the firm failed to withhold taxes for employees who were misclassified as partners, a California federal court found, partially dismissing the proposed class action while giving her the option to amend her complaint.
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August 04, 2025
DOJ Defends IRS-ICE Data Sharing Pact In DC Circ.
The D.C. Circuit should reject four immigrant advocacy groups' push to prevent the IRS from disclosing confidential tax return information to immigration enforcement authorities, the government said Monday, arguing there's no concrete evidence that the information sharing will harm the groups' members.
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August 04, 2025
Judge Demands DOJ Explain Drop Of $47M Fat Brands Suit
A California federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to explain why it wants to drop a criminal case against Fat Brands and its founder Andrew Wiederhorn after the government accused him of evading taxes in a scheme to disguise $47 million in compensation as loans.
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August 04, 2025
Tax AI Co. Blue J Raises $122M Series D To Expand
Blue J, a generative artificial intelligence-powered research platform for tax and legal practitioners, announced Monday the raising of $122 million in a Series D funding round to expand its team, product development and marketing efforts.
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August 01, 2025
New Int'l Tax Rules Heighten Discrimination Worries In States
The new federal tax law's broader tax base for international income could magnify foreign commerce discrimination concerns that are already present in states that conformed to prior iterations of the federal tax code.
Expert Analysis
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Spinoff Transaction Considerations For Biotech M&A
Amid current market challenges, boards and management teams of biotech companies can consider several strategies for maximizing value should a spinoff opportunity arise, but not without significant advance planning and careful implementation, particularly in cases that might qualify as tax-free, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.
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Senate's 41% Litigation Finance Tax Would Hurt Legal System
The Senate’s latest version of the Big Beautiful Bill Act would impose a 41% tax on the litigation finance industry, but the tax is totally disconnected from the concerns it purports to address, and it would set the country back to a time when small plaintiffs had little recourse against big defendants, says Anthony Sebok at Cardozo School of Law.
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Drawbacks For Taxpayers From Justices' Levy Dispute Ruling
The Supreme Court's June decision in Commissioner v. Zuch, holding the Tax Court lacks jurisdiction to resolve disputes where the IRS has stopped pursuing a levy, may require taxpayers to explore new tactics for mitigating the increased difficulty of appealing their liability via collection due process hearings, says Matthew Roberts at Meadows Collier.
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How Energy Cos. Can Prepare For Potential Tax Credit Cuts
The Senate Finance Committee's version of the One Big Beautiful Bill act would create a steep phaseout of renewable energy tax credits, which should prompt companies to take several actions, including conduct a project review to discern which could begin construction before the end of the year, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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DOJ Has Deep Toolbox For Corporate Immigration Violations
With the U.S. Department of Justice now offering rewards to whistleblowers who report businesses that employ unauthorized workers, companies should understand the immigration enforcement landscape and how they can reduce their risk, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Trade In Limbo: The Legal Storm Reshaping Trump's Tariffs
In the final days of May, decisions in two significant court actions upended the tariff and trade landscape, so until the U.S. Supreme Court rules, businesses and supply chains should expect tariffs to remain in place, and for the Trump administration to continue pursuing and enforcing all available trade policies, say attorneys at Ice Miller.
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Del. Dispatch: General Partner Discretion In Valuing Incentives
In Walker v. FRP Investors, the Delaware Court of Chancery recently held that the general partner of a limited partnership breached its obligations when determining the threshold value of newly issued incentive units, highlighting the court's willingness to reconstruct what a reasonable determination of value by a general partner should have been, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Move Beyond Surface-Level Edits To Master Legal Writing
Recent instances in which attorneys filed briefs containing artificial intelligence hallucinations offer a stark reminder that effective revision isn’t just about superficial details like grammar — it requires attorneys to critically engage with their writing and analyze their rhetorical choices, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.
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9th Circ. Has Muddied Waters Of Article III Pleading Standard
District courts in the Ninth Circuit continue to apply a defunct and especially forgiving pleading standard to questions of Article III standing, and the circuit court itself has only perpetuated this confusion — making it an attractive forum for disputes that have no rightful place in federal court, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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Steps For Universities To Pass Tax-Exempt Test Amid Scrutiny
After decades of a quiet governmental acceptance of tax-exempt status, universities are facing unprecedented and public pressure to defend themselves, and must consider how to protect this valuable status, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Tax Court Ruling Sets High Bar For Limited Partner Exception
The U.S. Tax Court’s recent decision in Soroban Capital Partners v. Commissioner endorsed the IRS’ use of functional analysis to determine whether the limited partner exception applied for taxation under the Self-Employed Contributions Act, highlighting the intense factual analysis that will occur during audits, says Erin Hines at Akerman.
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How AI May Reshape The Future Of Adjudication
As discussed at a recent panel at Texas A&M, artificial intelligence will not erase the human element of adjudication in the next 10 to 20 years, but it will drive efficiencies that spur private arbiters to experiment, lead public courts to evolve and force attorneys to adapt, says Christopher Seck at Squire Patton.
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When Legal Advocacy Crosses The Line Into Incivility
As judges issue sanctions for courtroom incivility, and state bars advance formal discipline rules, trial lawyers must understand that the difference between zealous advocacy and unprofessionalism is not just a matter of tone; it's a marker of skill, credibility and potentially disciplinary exposure, says Nate Sabri at Perkins Coie.