Tax Blog/Blawg

As the nation responds to COVID-19 and a world pandemic, IRC §139 may be one more tool in an employer’s toolkit to help their employees with fighting this silent war.

Under the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) §139(a), “qualifying disaster relief payment" from an employer to an employee are excluded from gross income, the opposite of normal tax law. 

IRC §139 applies after the President of the United States declares a disaster. On March 13, 2020, President Trump made an emergency declaration under the Robert T. Stafford Act, evoking the protections of §139.

Importantly, an ...

Last week, our Trust & Estates Team at Chamberlain Hrdlicka sent a general alert addressing some of the challenges and opportunities that exist for our clients' estate and tax planning as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. 

This week we want to focus on a helpful new development regarding the formalities applicable to the execution of Wills and other estate planning documents during this time of "social distancing." We also wish to highlight several estate planning techniques that have special attraction during this time of depressed values and historically low interest rates. 

Remote ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised several interesting issues for employers and employees under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This client alert will address the challenges employers are facing due to the pandemic and their effect on ACA compliance, as well as potential exposure to employer mandate penalties.

General overview of the ACA rules and ESRPs

The ACA added Section 4980H to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), which applies to applicable large employers (ALEs). An employer is an ALE for a calendar year if, on average, it employed at least 50 full-time employees during the previous ...

At Chamberlain Hrdlicka, we are endeavoring to be responsive to our clients' continuing needs for legal advice and counsel during this time of crisis.   Our various firm legal teams are focusing on the most critical issues confronting our business and individual clients.   Some examples include:

• our Corporate team providing critical information on SBA loan and grant programs available to provide emergency funding to businesses in distress;
• our Labor and Employment lawyers addressing a wide range of employment issues including the painful process of employee layoffs;
• our Real ...

COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has already had a profound impact on the U.S. economy. Businesses and individuals are struggling to adapt to restrictions imposed by federal, state and local governments in an attempt to "flatten the curve" and limit the consequences on public health. Several major laws were recently enacted to help partially offset the economic effects of this crisis and hopefully put businesses and the economy in a position to hit-the-ground running once this time has passed.

The Chamberlain Tax Planning & Business Transactions Team has prepared this ...

The Inspector General for Tax Administration, TIGTA, is in the news regularly.  In addition to tracking down misbehaving IRS employees and misbehaving representatives, an important role of this organization seems to be examining every aspect of the operation of the Internal Revenue Service about which it can publish a critical report.  Lately, it seems that TIGTA has been publishing an average of one a week, virtually all of which have been critical of the performance of the Internal Revenue Service.  Two of my favorites, however, deserve some close examination and cause this writer to ...

There is an old saying: “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.” Of course, there are also people who can’t “do” or “teach,” and what happens to all those folks? It is obvious that some of them have chosen to go into political commentary, whether on their own podcast or National media. Others, it seems, have found a very pleasant home in the Office of the Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration, aka “TIGTA.” What prompts my comments are several assertions in the May 31, 2019 Report entitled “Few Accuracy-Related Penalties Are Proposed in Large ...

2018 Capital Gain Deferral Opportunity through June 29, 2019

An important deadline is approaching on June 29, 2019 for taxpayers looking to defer 2018 capital gains by investing in a Qualified Opportunity Zone (“QOZ”).  Investments of capital gains in a Qualified Opportunity Fund (“QOF”) generally require the investments to be made within 180 days from the date(s) of sale giving rise to capital gain. However, the 180-day period is extended for capital gains earned through a partnership or pass-through entity.  This exception to the 180-day contribution rule for ...

As if the waters for small captive insurance arrangements hadn’t been muddied enough after Avrahami v. Commissioner, on June 18, 2018, the U.S. Tax Court issued the second opinion in a small captive case, Reserve Mechanical Corp. v. Commissioner, this time holding that the taxpayer’s participation in a risk pool failed to satisfy the risk distribution requirement (i.e., the sharing of a sufficient number of independent insurance risks so that no one claim can have too great an adverse financial effect on the insurer) to establish a bona fide insurance arrangement. Until this ...

For my fellow procrastinators whose federal tax returns are on extension, with the October 15th deadline rapidly approaching, perhaps the burning question has crossed your mind, “If I file electronically while the government is shut down, will my return be accepted?”  Yes, I can happily report that a return electronically submitted to the IRS at 3:43 p.m. this day was “accepted for filing” at 4:04 p.m., efficiency approaching a Michael Phelps-like performance. Perhaps the IRS has designed a system that operates better when it is staffed only by computers rather than by ...