Federal

  • June 12, 2025

    Avenatti Sheds 3 Years After 9th Circ. Orders Resentencing

    A California federal judge on Thursday resentenced disbarred attorney Michael Avenatti to just over 11 years in federal prison for filching millions of dollars from his clients' settlement funds, reducing a 14-year sentence overturned by the Ninth Circuit and leaving Avenatti with about eight years left after time served.

  • June 12, 2025

    IRS Extends Deadline To Comply With Digital Asset Rules

    Brokers of digital assets such as cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens will have another year to comply with new tax reporting requirements before facing penalties, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday in extending transition relief to the sale of digital assets through 2026.

  • June 12, 2025

    Biz Owner Who Faked Tax Docs Gets 4 Years For COVID Fraud

    A business owner who used fabricated tax forms to secure $1 million in pandemic relief loans was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a Colorado federal court after admitting one of the companies was inoperative and had no employees.

  • June 12, 2025

    Justices Reverse IRS Loss In Tax Collection Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the U.S. Tax Court did not have jurisdiction to review a New Jersey woman's collection dispute with the Internal Revenue Service after the agency stopped going after her unpaid taxes, reversing an earlier IRS loss.

  • June 11, 2025

    Ex-NASCAR Owner Pleads Guilty To Dodging Payroll Taxes

    A former NASCAR team owner appeared in North Carolina federal court Wednesday to enter a guilty plea for his failure to pay payroll taxes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.

  • June 11, 2025

    Russia Must Face $5B Yukos Award Suit, DC Judge Rules

    At D.C. federal judge on Wednesday denied Russia's bid to nix litigation filed by the financing arm of Yukos Oil Co. to enforce a nearly $5 billion arbitral award, saying the Kremlin's jurisdictional objections fell short.

  • June 11, 2025

    US Consultant In France Must Pay $2M In FBAR Penalties

    An American energy consultant residing in France must pay more than $2 million in penalties for purposely not disclosing foreign bank accounts that held more than $3 million, as opposed to the under $30,000 initially reported, a D.C. federal court ruled.

  • June 11, 2025

    IRS Must Improve Online Taxpayer Identification, GAO Says

    The Internal Revenue Service needs to enhance its oversight of the outside vendor it uses to verify taxpayer identities when users log in to file their returns or access online resources, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.

  • June 11, 2025

    Treasury Secretary Defends IRS Cuts, $3.8T Budget Bill

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told House lawmakers Wednesday that cutting IRS funding would strengthen the agency while the GOP's $3.8 trillion One Big Beautiful Bill Act would boost working-class living standards and spark a fresh wave of economic growth.

  • June 11, 2025

    Senate Dems' Bill Would Bar GILTI For 'Round-Tripped' Income

    Income that is "round-tripped" to obtain tax advantages would become ineligible for the half-off corporate tax rate under the global intangible low-taxed income regime, based on a bill introduced Wednesday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and three other Senate Democrats.

  • June 11, 2025

    Trump Pick For IRS Chief Clears Key Senate Hurdle

    President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service survived a key procedural vote Wednesday in the Senate, setting the stage for the chamber to proceed with a final vote on his confirmation.

  • June 10, 2025

    Vertex Says Tax Software Rival Purposely Destroyed Evidence

    Tax compliance software company Vertex Inc. told a Pennsylvania federal judge Monday that Avalara intentionally destroyed and failed to preserve "key sources of electronically stored information crucially relevant" to Vertex's lawsuit accusing its rival of poaching workers to steal trade secrets.

  • June 10, 2025

    GOP Senators Vow To Maintain No Tax On Tips In Budget Bill

    Senate Republicans said Tuesday they are likely to preserve the House's provisions that exempt tips from taxation and honor other campaign tax promises of President Donald Trump in the chamber's version of the budget bill.

  • June 10, 2025

    LA Real Estate Agent Admits Obstructing IRS

    A Los Angeles commercial real estate broker pled guilty to obstructing the Internal Revenue Service's attempts to collect thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes by willfully hiding his income and assets from the agency, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

  • June 10, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Keeps Trump Tariffs In Place, Fast-Tracks Appeal

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday granted the federal government's bid to keep President Donald Trump's global tariffs in place while it appeals a U.S. Court of International Trade order striking them down on the grounds that they exceeded the president's authority.

  • June 10, 2025

    Fund Manager, Wife Can't Claim $1.9M Refund, Judge Rules

    A Florida investment fund manager and his wife are not entitled to a $1.9 million income tax refund resulting from a depreciation deduction related to a private jet because the entity that purchased the jet was not operating as a business, a federal judge ruled.

  • June 10, 2025

    Ayahuasca Church Brings Religious Use Case To DC Circ.

    An Iowa church that seeks to use a psychedelic drug in its rites filed a petition Monday with the D.C. Circuit seeking to compel federal drug enforcers to process an application for a religious exemption to the Controlled Substances Act, which has been pending for over six years.

  • June 10, 2025

    Judge Denies Gov't Bid To Toss Law Firm's Payroll Tax Suit

    The U.S. government cannot throw out a boutique law firm's suit that seeks a refund of $282,000 in pandemic-era worker retention credits and a pause on payroll tax enforcement, a Connecticut federal judge ruled Tuesday.

  • June 10, 2025

    Ex-Conn. Attorney Sues AG Bondi To Restore Gun Rights

    A Connecticut attorney who served prison time for a tax offense has sued federal and state officials to demand the restoration of his right to possess firearms and ammunition, arguing that the prohibition on that right is unconstitutional as applied to him.

  • June 10, 2025

    Tax Chiefs Say Flagging Oddities Could Reduce ID Crimes

    Flagging suspicious behaviors, like bank accounts receiving multiple tax refund deposits in a matter of days, could help reduce identity-based crimes, a public-private partnership with top tax officials from five countries including the U.S. reported Tuesday.

  • June 10, 2025

    Holland & Knight Continues Tax Team Growth In Philadelphia

    Holland & Knight LLP is continuing the expansion of its tax practice in the Philadelphia office with the addition of an attorney who moved her practice from Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry, the second lawyer to join from the firm in the last month.

  • June 10, 2025

    Flagging Fintech Could Help Stop Tax Crimes, Tax Chiefs Say

    Governments could help mitigate money laundering and tax evasion by flagging fintech firms with services nested within traditional banks, with virtual assets used for anonymity or with fiat currency conversion services, top tax officials from five countries including the U.S. said Tuesday.

  • June 10, 2025

    Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Sets 6 July Committee Meetings

    Six Taxpayer Advocacy Panel committees will meet in July to discuss the Internal Revenue Service's customer service, according to notices released Tuesday.

  • June 09, 2025

    States Warned Of Budget Bill's Push To Broaden PL 86-272

    States and businesses should closely watch a provision in the budget reconciliation bill H.R. 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that would expand the protections of a federal law that provides limited state income tax provisions for businesses, state tax professionals said Monday.

  • June 09, 2025

    Tax Court Backs Penalties In $24M Georgia Easement Feud

    An Internal Revenue Service agent properly followed the procedure to secure timely supervisory approval to impose penalties against a partnership for incorrectly claiming a $24 million charitable tax deduction on its Georgia conservation easement donation, the U.S. Tax Court said Monday.

Expert Analysis

  • Lawsuits Shouldn't Be Shadow Assets For Foreign Capital

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    Third-party litigation financing amplifies inefficiencies from litigation and facilitates national exposure to foreign influence in the U.S. justice system, so full disclosure of financing arrangements should be required as a matter of institutional integrity, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • How To Accelerate Your Post-Attorney Career Transition

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    Professionals seeking to transition to nonattorney careers may encounter skepticism as nontraditional candidates, but there are opportunities for thought leadership and to leverage speaking and writing to accelerate a post-attorney career transition, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Evgeny Efremkin at Toronto Metropolitan University.

  • Tariffs And FCA Create Perfect Storm For Importers

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    The Trump administration's aggressive tariff policies pose a high risk to certain importation practices that are particularly likely to trigger False Claims Act enforcement, say attorneys at Jeffer Mangels.

  • US Reassessment Of OECD Tax Deal Is Right Move

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    The wholesale U.S. reevaluation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax deal ordered by President Donald Trump is a positive step that could ultimately create a more durable international tax system, says Anne Gordon at the National Foreign Trade Council.

  • Measuring And Mitigating Harm From Discriminatory Taxes

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    In response to new tariffs and other recent "America First Trade Policy" pronouncements, corporations should assess and take steps to minimize their potential exposure to discriminatory and reciprocal tax measures that are likely to come, say economists at Charles River Associates.

  • Adapting To Private Practice: From DOJ Leadership To BigLaw

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    The move from government service to private practice can feel like changing one’s identity, but as someone who has left the U.S. Department of Justice twice, I’ve learned that a successful transition requires patience, effort and the realization that the rewards of practicing law don’t come from one particular position, says Richard Donoghue at Pillsbury.

  • How The CRE Industry Is Adapting To Tariff Uncertainty

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    Amid uncertainty about pending tariffs and their potential ripple effects, including higher material costs, supply chain delays and tighter margins, commercial real estate industry players are focusing on strategic planning and risk mitigation, says Daniel Diaz Leyva at Day Pitney.

  • Law Firm Executive Orders Create A Legal Ethics Minefield

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    Recent executive orders targeting BigLaw firms create ethical dilemmas — and raise the specter of civil or criminal liability — for the government attorneys tasked with implementing them and for the law firms that choose to make agreements with the administration, say attorneys at Buchalter.

  • Trade Policy Shifts Raise Hurdles For Gov't And Cos. Alike

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    The persistent tension between the Trump administration's fast-moving and aggressive trade policies and the compliance-heavy nature of the trade industry creates implementation challenges for both the business community and the government, says Sara Schoenfeld at Kamerman.

  • Firms Must Embrace Alternative Billing Models Or Fall Behind

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    As artificial intelligence tools eliminate inefficiencies and the Big Four accounting firms enter the legal market, law firms that pivot from the entrenched billable hour model to outcomes-based pricing will see a distinct competitive advantage, says attorney William Brewer.

  • How Attorneys Can Master The Art Of On-Camera Presence

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    As attorneys are increasingly presented with on-camera opportunities, they can adapt their traditional legal skills for video contexts — such as virtual client meetings, marketing content or media interviews — by understanding the medium and making intentional adjustments, says Kerry Barrett.

  • Adapting To Private Practice: From Fed. Prosecutor To BigLaw

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    Making the jump from government to private practice is no small feat, but, based on my experience transitioning to a business-driven environment after 15 years as an assistant U.S. attorney, it can be incredibly rewarding and help you become a more versatile lawyer, says Michael Beckwith at Dickinson Wright.

  • Justices' False Statement Ruling Curbs Half-Truth Liability

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Thompson v. U.S. decision clarified that a federal statute used to prosecute false statements made to bank regulators only criminalizes outright falsehoods, narrowing prosecutors’ reach and providing defense counsel a stronger basis to challenge indictments of merely misleading statements, says Tamara de Silva at De Silva Law Offices.

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