The Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) providing further guidance on the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements for clean energy...more
On June 14, 2023, the IRS and Treasury issued proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) under two novel provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”) designed to promote capital investment in renewable...more
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”) released by U.S. Senate Democrats on July 27, 2022 would, if enacted, provide a number of financial incentives to encourage the purchase of electric and hydrogen fuel cell...more
Against the backdrop of rapidly evolving blockchain technology, the IRS has oftentimes been slow to update its related tax guidance, leaving participants in the blockchain ecosystem uncertain about their tax obligations....more
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, enacted on November 15, 2021, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (the “BIL”), adds many important provisions regarding the development of the United States’...more
On January 6, 2021, the IRS issued final regulations relating to section 45Q. This is the fourth piece of guidance from the IRS relating to section 45Q, following IRS Notice 2020-12, Revenue Procedure 2020-12, the Proposed...more
1/29/2021
/ Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Energy Projects ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Production Tax Credit ,
Tax Credits ,
Tax Planning ,
Urban Planning & Development
The IRS has been increasingly active in its effort to ensure that virtual currency does not become a tool for tax evasion. This is not surprising, given that—as we started the last month of 2020—the value of Bitcoin, by far...more
Background. - While the fossil fuel industry continues to enjoy a number of tax incentives, a new generation of tax incentives were enacted in the early 2000s to promote the use of renewable energy. These include the...more
9/23/2020
/ Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Energy Projects ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Investment Tax Credits ,
IRS ,
Real Estate Development ,
Renewable Energy ,
Tax Credits ,
Tax Planning
On September 21, the United States Energy Association (“USEA”), on behalf of the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy, released a comprehensive report on the current state of carbon capture, utilization, and...more
Opportunity Zone (or “OZ”) investment was hailed in 2018 and 2019 as the hottest and most innovative way of attracting significant private capital to distressed communities in the United States and its territories by offering...more
2/7/2020
/ Capital Gains ,
Community Development ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Economic Development ,
Fund Managers ,
Investment Funds ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Investors ,
IRS ,
Low Income Housing ,
Low-Income Issues ,
New Regulations ,
Opportunity Zones ,
Public Finance ,
Real Estate Development ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Deferral ,
Tax Incentives ,
Tax Reform
With the emergence of digital assets, the question has arisen whether digital assets held in “wallets” in foreign exchanges need to be reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign...more
1/8/2020
/ Bitcoin ,
Commodities ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Currency Exchange ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Digital Securities ,
Digital Wallets ,
FATCA ,
FBAR ,
Filing Requirements ,
Foreign Assets ,
Foreign Exchanges ,
Foreign Financial Assets ,
Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) ,
HIRE Act ,
Investment ,
IRS ,
Money Services Business ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Required Forms ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Tax Liability ,
Virtual Currency
The UK tax authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), has taken a further step towards tackling perceived tax avoidance in transactions involving cryptoassets. Specifically, according to press reports, exchanges such...more
On May 2, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service ( the “IRS”) released Notice 2019-32 (the “Notice”) which requested comments for Carbon Oxide Sequestration Section 45Q of the Internal Revenue Code....more
Section 45Q Tax Credits Internal Revenue Code Section 45Q provides a tax credit for the sequestration or use of qualified carbon oxides (“COx”), including CO2. Although Section 45Q was enacted in 2008, there was uncertainty...more
In February, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its FY 2018 Annual Report and announced a record-breaking year for the agency’s whistleblower program. Overall, whistleblowers provided information that contributed to...more
On November 29, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") published a memorandum (the "Memorandum") dated November 20, 2018, outlining the new process for all voluntary disclosures, both domestic and offshore (the "New...more
12/21/2018
/ Banking Sector ,
FBAR ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Financial Accounts ,
IRS ,
Offshore Funds ,
OVDP ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Evasion ,
Tax Planning ,
Voluntary Disclosure ,
White Collar Crimes
Code section 965 establishes a transition tax (the “Transition Tax”), which applies to U.S. corporations (and in certain cases, U.S. partnerships and individuals) having control over unrepatriated offshore earnings as of the...more
On July 24, 2018, in the Altera Corp v. Commissioner decision, the Ninth Circuit overturned a 2015 U.S. Tax Court opinion and upheld the validity of regulations requiring taxpayers to treat stock-based compensation as a cost...more
8/3/2018
/ Arms Length Transactions ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Foreign Corporations ,
IRS ,
Multinationals ,
Stock-Based Compensation ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Planning ,
Technology Sector ,
Transfer Pricing
In July 2014 AbbVie Inc. and Shire Plc's announced a $54.8 billion merger deal that would have made AbbVie the largest U.S. company to move its legal residence, though not its operations, abroad in order to lower its tax rate...more
3/3/2017
/ AbbVie ,
Capital Losses ,
Inversion ,
IRS ,
Offshore Companies ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Shareholder Votes ,
Stocks ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Rates ,
Termination Payments
On January 19, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued final, temporary, and proposed regulations (the “Regulations”) under section 871(m) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Code...more
2/2/2017
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Derivatives ,
Dividend-Equivalent Transactions ,
Exchange-Traded Products ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Master Limited Partnerships ,
Partnerships ,
Qualified Derivatives Dealers (QDDs) ,
Section 871(m) ,
Securities ,
SIFMA ,
Stocks
On December 2, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued Notice 2016-76 (the “Notice”), which provides highly anticipated guidance regarding “dividend equivalent” payments under section 871(m) of the Internal...more
On October 13, 2016, the IRS and Treasury Department issued much anticipated regulations (the “Final” or “Temporary” Regulations) under Internal Revenue Code section 385. These regulations, which consist of both temporary...more
11/10/2016
/ Bifurcation ,
Debt ,
Debt Instruments ,
Expanded Group Instruments (EGIs) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Issuers ,
IRS ,
Multinationals ,
Section 385 ,
Stocks ,
U.S. Treasury
On October 5, 2016, the IRS and Treasury released a package of new regulations under Code sections 707 and 752 designed to curtail the use of debt to reduce tax on the contribution of appreciated assets to leveraged...more
An Overview of Proposed Regulation AT -
Orrick attorneys authored an overview of Regulation Automated Trading (known as "Regulation AT") proposed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") in the May/June 2016...more
8/2/2016
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Currency ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Electronic Trading ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Innovative Technology ,
IRS ,
Regulation AT ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swaps
On April 4, 2016, the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department, in connection with a package of anti-inversion regulations prompted by news of the recent spate of corporate inversions (particularly the $160 billion Pfizer-Allergan...more