On January 12, 2022, the National Taxpayer Advocate released a report to US Congress concerning the state of tax administration in 2021. The report highlights the struggles the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been having...more
We previously provided an overview of the time limits imposed on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for assessing federal tax. The general rule is that the IRS must assess tax within three years from the later of the due date...more
1/17/2022
/ Appeals ,
Audits ,
Estate Tax ,
Failure-to-File ,
Federal Taxes ,
Fraud ,
GILTI tax ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Tax Court
At the end of 2016 we posted “Types of Tax Court Opinions and Their Precedential Effect” and added that document to the Resources tab on the blog. We recently updated this resource and, below, we’ve also provided the updated...more
In late 2020, the US Tax Court transitioned to a new case management system, DAWSON (Docket Access Within a Secure Online Network), which was named after the late Judge Howard A. Dawson, Jr.. We previously discussed...more
On December 6, 2021, the US Tax Court announced that Adam B. Landy and Eunkyong Choi have each been selected to serve as Special Trial Judges (STJs). They join the existing members of the Tax Court, which include four other...more
We previously wrote... about decisions made by the District Court of Minnesota and the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Mayo Clinic v. United States regarding challenges to the validity of certain Treasury...more
On November 21, 2021, the US Tax Court announced that Special Trial Judge Daniel A. Guy, Jr., received the J. Edgar Murdock Award for his distinguished service to the Tax Court. The Murdock Award commemorates Judge John Edgar...more
We recently covered the Appeals Team Case Leader Conferencing Initiative: Summary of Findings and Next Steps (Appeals Summary) in relation to the participation of Large Business & International (LB&I) exam teams and Internal...more
The traditional audit experience for taxpayers large and small has, like many things, been impacted by COVID-19. Taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have been forced to navigate audits in a remote environment,...more
Tax reform is on the horizon. It’s in the press every day, but until US Congress can get together and make a final decision, it’s all conjecture. So what can taxpayers do to prepare for the inevitable? One idea is to enter...more
On October 15, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a press release related to required information for valid research credit refund claims. The press release contains a link to a memorandum by two IRS employees,...more
On October 15, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a news release and fact sheet for IRS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which are typically posted on the IRS’s website. The purpose of the fact sheet is to...more
Historically, the Supreme Court of the United States rarely grants petitions for certiorari in tax cases, and it appears this trend continues in the current term.
On September 30, 2021, the Supreme Court granted the...more
10/8/2021
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Certiorari ,
Equitable Tolling ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Jurisdiction ,
SCOTUS ,
Surcharges ,
Tax Court ,
Tax Injunction Act ,
Tax Litigation
Internal Revenue Code (Code) section 7803(a)(3)(C) provides that taxpayers have “the right to pay no more than the correct amount of tax.” However, there are two relevant considerations to this “right.” First, the Internal...more
When we previously wrote about the Joint Committee on Taxation’s (JCT) process for reviewing refund claims granted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), we explained that the IRS generally must submit proposed refunds in...more
The IRS Independent Office of Appeals (IRS Appeals, Appeals) has seen many changes over the past several years. One of the more controversial and publicized change related to the 2017 pilot program to test whether inviting...more
Several years ago, it came to light that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had hired a law firm to assist with transfer pricing matters in an ongoing audit of a large corporate taxpayer. Contemporaneous with that hiring, the...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a fact sheet, providing guidance on acceptable methods for taxpayers to electronically or digitally sign certain paper forms that they cannot file electronically. In order to...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must follow the “statute of limitations” as stated in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 6501 to “assess” additional federal tax. Likewise, taxpayers must seek a tax overpayment or refund...more
Each year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) publishes a list of tax-related scams, which it calls the “Dirty Dozen.” This year, it provided a “Dirty Dozen” scam series warning taxpayers of such scams....more
The substance over form doctrine (and related step transaction and economic substance doctrines) are often invoked by courts to disallow tax consequences that seem too good to be true. Courts have struggled for years with how...more
In CIC Services, LLC v. Internal Revenue Service, a unanimous US Supreme Court allowed CIC, a tax advisor, to proceed with a pre-enforcement challenge to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) “reportable transaction” regime....more
6/1/2021
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Injunction Act ,
CIC Services LLC v IRS ,
Criminal Liability ,
Criminal Penalties ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Notice and Comment ,
SCOTUS ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Tax Penalties
In the latest tax regulation deference case, the Eighth Circuit provided guidance to taxpayers and tax practitioners on the “analytical path” to resolve the question of whether a tax regulation is a valid interpretation of...more
5/18/2021
/ Auer Deference ,
Chevron Deference ,
Debt Financing ,
Functionality ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Judicial Deference ,
Judicial Interpretation ,
Kisor v Wilkie ,
Mayo Clinic ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Tax Practitioner Privilege ,
Tax Reform ,
Unrelated Business Income Tax
The list of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) forms that can be digitally signed continues to grow. On August 28, 2020, the IRS issued a memorandum indicating that it would accept the use of digital signatures on various IRS...more
The Biden Administration has requested a $1.2 billion increase in funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as part of its proposal for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 2022) discretionary funding released in a letter from Office of...more