Welcome to TaxBlawg, a blog resource from Chamberlain Hrdlicka for news and analysis of current legal issues facing tax practitioners. Although blawg.com identifies nearly 1,400 active “blawgs,” including 20+ blawgs related to taxation and estate planning, the needs of tax professionals have received surprisingly little attention.
Tax practitioners have previously lacked a dedicated resource to call their own. For those intrepid souls, we offer TaxBlawg, a forum of tax talk for tax pros.
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Background:
Millions of Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims have been filed with the IRS as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of taxpayers already receiving their refunds and others still waiting to receive refund checks. The IRS audits and Appeals work has commenced with a fury at a dizzying pace. While many appropriate ERC claims have been filed, the IRS has seen a number of erroneous claims as well. On December 21st, the IRS launched a new initiative to address the issue of erroneous ERC claims. The Voluntary Disclosure Program, part of a broader IRS effort to ...
On November 20, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Mann Construction ruled that its 2022 decision – which had held that sub-regulatory pronouncements labeling transactions as “listed” or “reportable” (and thus subject to penalties for failure to disclose) are invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act – applies only to taxpayers in the Sixth Circuit because the IRS shrewdly mooted the case before the district court on remand was able to issue a nationwide vacatur.
As background, Congress has given the IRS a panoply of potent weapons to combat ...
Recently, the IRS has been devoting substantial resources to its investigation of Malta Pension Plans. Just this month, the IRS Criminal Investigation division served summonses on multiple entities and persons who it believes were involved with such plans, and has proposed making the transaction a “listed” transaction. Either action would be noteworthy, but that combined activity tells a story of deep IRS scrutiny. This article discusses that activity, and provides some high-level options for affected taxpayers.
The Latest Listed Transaction: the Maltese Pension
On June ...
Every five years the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is required to collect information and compile statistics on the scale of foreign-owned business activities in the United States under the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act of 1976. This information is used by the federal government to analyze the impact of foreign investment on the U.S. economy. In general, with few exceptions, if a foreign person (an individual or an entity) owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, 10% or more of the voting securities in a U.S. entity at the end of the of the ...
For taxpayers challenging IRS notices and regulations designating transactions as “reportable transactions” or “listed transactions,” the Mann Construction case keeps getting better.
In 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Mann Construction held that IRS Notice 2007-83, which labeled a certain type of transactions as a “listed transaction,” was invalid due to the IRS’ violation of the Administrative Procedure Act in promulgating the notice. Last week, on remand, the district court amplified the IRS’ loss by vacating the IRS notice not only ...