Federal
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July 11, 2025
IRS Criminal Arm Must Fortify Body Cam Rules, TIGTA Says
The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation unit must reinforce internal policies and procedures governing its body-worn camera pilot program, including the requirement for special agents to review all enforcement footage, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report Friday.
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July 11, 2025
Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Committee Moves Up July Session
The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is moving up its Joint Committee meeting to July 23, it announced Friday.
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July 11, 2025
No Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin Articles For July 14
The Internal Revenue Service's weekly bulletin, issued Friday, said there were no articles to be published for July 14.
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July 10, 2025
6th Circ. Denies Ohio Dentist's Life Insurance Tax Deductions
An Ohio dentist cannot deduct his life insurance premiums that he intended to potentially donate to a zoo, the Sixth Circuit ruled, saying the arrangement was taxable under 2003 regulations governing policies that involve two parties sharing the cost and benefit of insurance.
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July 10, 2025
Feds Want Cheesesteak Shop Owner's Tax Sentence Restored
Prosecutors urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to reimpose a nearly two-year sentence on a Philadelphia cheesesteak shop owner who was convicted of paying employees off the books, a request that comes two months after the Third Circuit vacated his prison term.
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July 10, 2025
Tax Court Rejects Claim Of IRS Mail Error, Tosses Petition
A Californian waited too long to petition the U.S. Tax Court to redetermine a notice of deficiency for the 2018 tax year, the court said, rejecting her argument that the Internal Revenue Service did not properly send the notice to her last known address.
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July 10, 2025
IRS Leaker Fairly Sentenced To 5 Years, Gov't Tells DC Circ.
The judge who sentenced an IRS contractor for leaking thousands of wealthy people's tax returns to the media, including those of President Donald Trump, kept an open mind when she decided to deliver the maximum five-year prison term, the government told the D.C. Circuit, arguing the sentence was fair.
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July 10, 2025
10th Circ. Affirms Sentence In $1B Energy Tax Credit Scheme
A leader of a renewable-energy scheme that illicitly sought $1 billion in tax credits failed to persuade the Tenth Circuit to overturn his conviction by arguing that jurors were biased when his lawyer was identified as having helped Michael Jackson beat child molestation charges.
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July 10, 2025
Texas Judge Partially Voids DOL's ERISA Rollover Rule
A Texas federal judge partially invalidated an investment advice regulation from President Donald Trump's first administration involving employee retirement savings and rollover transactions, ruling the U.S. Department of Labor exceeded its authority when it handed down a new interpretation of federal benefits law.
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July 10, 2025
Trump Says 50% Copper Tariff Will Begin Aug. 1
President Donald Trump said his new 50% tariff on copper imports will take effect Aug. 1, citing national security concerns.
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July 10, 2025
5 Employee Benefits Takeaways On The GOP Tax Bill
Congressional Republicans' sweeping tax and policy bill, which President Donald Trump sought and then signed, contains multiple provisions that caught the attention of employee benefits and executive compensation attorneys, including new changes to high-deductible health plans and an employer-side deduction limit affecting highly compensated employees. Here are five takeaways from employee benefits and executive compensation attorneys on what's in — and out of — the GOP megabill.
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July 10, 2025
IRS To Rescind Digital Asset Broker Rules
The Internal Revenue Service will revoke final regulations requiring brokers to report their digital asset sales, the agency said Thursday, following through on a congressional measure this year that called for their removal.
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July 09, 2025
Trump Slaps Brazil With 50% Tariff, Cites Bolsonaro Trial
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Brazilian goods sent to the U.S. can expect a 50% tariff starting in August, saying that the increased levy was in part due to Brazil's charges against its former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
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July 09, 2025
Honduran Woman Gets 21 Months In Prison For Payroll Fraud
A Florida federal judge sentenced a Honduran woman to nearly two years in prison after she pled guilty to charges in a scheme to pay construction workers off the books to avoid paying payroll taxes and workers' compensation insurance premiums, resulting in a roughly $3.1 million loss, according to prosecutors.
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July 09, 2025
Trump Order On Solar, Wind Credits Puts Industry On Heels
President Donald Trump threw a curveball to the energy industry by ordering the U.S. Department of the Treasury to take a hard line on which projects qualify for solar and wind tax credits under the new budget law, leaving practitioners uncertain about the scope of the restrictions.
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July 09, 2025
Metals Co. Owner Sentenced To Prison For $1.2M Tax Fraud
The owner of a metal-coating business was sentenced to a year and a day in prison by a California federal court and must pay $1.2 million in restitution to the IRS after he admitted he failed to pay over taxes he collected from his employees.
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July 09, 2025
Gov't Wants Access To Bitcoin Investor's Wallet To Pay Tax
A Texas federal court should compel an investor who concealed millions of dollars he earned in bitcoin by filing false tax returns to grant the government access to his digital wallet key in order to pay $1.9 million in restitution, the government said.
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July 09, 2025
IRS Expands Filing Exceptions For Certain Pass-Throughs
The Internal Revenue Service is expanding domestic filing exceptions for certain pass-through entities with foreign investments, the agency announced Wednesday.
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July 09, 2025
Businesses, States Tell Fed. Circ. Trump's Tariffs Are Unlawful
The U.S. Court of International Trade correctly determined President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs were improperly imposed under a law that makes no mention of the trade mechanism, a group of states and small businesses told the Federal Circuit, arguing that the duties should be limited under another law.
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July 09, 2025
5 Years Ago, The McGirt Ruling Reshaped Tribal Jurisdiction
It was widely held for decades that Oklahoma had domain over criminal matters on tribal lands, but five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court turned that regime on its head, finding 19th century federal treaties with the Creek Nation that formed its reservation are valid — and, in turn, reestablishing 45% of the Sooner State as Indian Country.
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July 09, 2025
2nd Circ. Upholds Bookkeeper's Conviction In $7M IRS Fraud
The Second Circuit has affirmed the conviction of a moving company's top bookkeeper for his role in a scheme that paid movers off the books and bilked the IRS of $7.7 million in taxes, defending a lower court's decisions to allow testimony from a cooperating witness and other evidence.
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July 09, 2025
Baker McKenzie Rehires Int'l Tax Pro As Principal Economist
Baker McKenzie's former director of economics, who spent more than 15 years as an IRS assistant director in a division that focuses on cross-border tax issues, has rejoined the firm after working with EY.
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July 08, 2025
Trump Declares 50% Copper Tariff, Floats 200% Pharma Tariff
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will impose a new 50% tariff on copper imported into the U.S., while also raising the possibility of imposing a 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals.
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July 08, 2025
Trump Tariff Fights Put Spotlight On Major Questions Doctrine
Challenges to President Donald Trump's global tariffs have brought renewed attention to the U.S. Supreme Court's major questions doctrine, including observations that lower courts have so far inconsistently applied this approach when scrutinizing a range of agency actions.
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July 08, 2025
Tax Court Says IRS Offer In $57M Easement Case Isn't Binding
A settlement offer the Internal Revenue Service said it mistakenly made to a partnership after rejecting its $57 million conservation easement deduction is not binding, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday, declining the partnership's request to enforce the deal.
Expert Analysis
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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 Practical Guidance
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.
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IRS Should Revise Overbroad Microcaptive Regs
Rather than seeking to curtail use of congressionally sanctioned microcaptive insurance programs by imposing burdensome disclosure obligations, the Internal Revenue Service should revisit its recently finalized regulations and implement rules tailored to address areas of specific abuse, say attorneys at Zerbe Miller.
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Terraform Case May Be Bellwether For Crypto Enforcement
The prosecution of crypto company Terraform Labs and its CEO, Do Kwon, offers a unique test of the line between lawful and unlawful conduct in digital transactions, and the Trump administration’s posture toward the case will provide clues about its cryptocurrency enforcement agenda in the years to come, say attorneys at Brooks Pierce.
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How Law Firms Can Counteract The Loneliness Epidemic
The legal industry is facing an urgent epidemic of loneliness, affecting lawyer well-being, productivity, retention and profitability, and law firm leaders should take concrete steps to encourage the development of genuine workplace connections, says Michelle Gomez at Littler and Gwen Mellor Romans at Herald Talent.
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Texas Fraud Case Shows Dangers Of Faulty Crypto Reporting
The recent sentencing of a man who failed to properly report capital gains from bitcoin sales is a reminder that special attention must be given to the IRS' reporting requirements in order to stay out of the government's crosshairs, says Saverio Romeo at Fox Rothschild.
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Potential Impacts Of IRS' $1M Affiliate Pay Deduction Cap
If finalized, a recent Internal Revenue Service proposal expanding Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code to include the highly compensated employees of affiliates would make tracking which executives may be subject to the limit from year to year far more complex, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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5 Keys To Building Stronger Attorney-Client Relationships
Attorneys are often focused on being seen as the expert, but bonding with clients and prospects by sharing a few key personal details provides the basis for a caring, trusted and profoundly deeper business relationship, says Deb Feder at Feder Development.
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Notable Q4 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
In a continuation of trends in property and casualty insurance class actions, last quarter insurers struggled with defending the merits and class certification of sales tax and fee suits, and labor depreciation cases, but succeeded in dismissing privacy class actions at the pleading stages, says Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.
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Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence
Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.
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Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
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How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work
Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.