Smith v. Commissioner, a pending research credit case in the United States Tax Court, presents an issue of first impression: Is a partner’s self-employment income in a partnership allowable as a qualified research expense...more
The United States Tax Court skillfully dodged answering the headline question with a holding on standing. The court decided, however, that IRS appeals officers and IRS appeals team managers are not officers of the United...more
2/20/2025
/ Appointments Clause ,
Article II ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Government Agencies ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Separation of Powers ,
Standing ,
Tax Appeals ,
Tax Court ,
Tax Liability
As part of its “America First Trade Policy,” the White House is exploring an arcane IRS provision that allows the United States to double the tax rates of foreign companies and individuals....more
1/29/2025
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Double Taxation ,
Foreign Corporations ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
International Tax Issues ,
IRS ,
OECD ,
Pillar 2 ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Reform ,
Tax Treaty ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Treasury
Taxpayers whose tax returns the IRS examines may experience long administrative delays in working with the IRS to resolve unagreed issues. About twenty years ago, the IRS developed a procedure – fast track settlement – to...more
Taxpayers had mixed success in two recent research credit cases in the United States Tax Court.
In Smith v. Commissioner, the taxpayer was an architectural firm....more
Altria Group, Inc. v. United States, a federal income tax case pending in federal district court in Virginia, shows the importance of laying groundwork for litigation long before a complaint is filed. At issue is a difficult...more
A tax case pending in the United States Supreme Court, Moore v. United States, may cause a cataclysmic change in the federal income tax. The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution empowers Congress to impose “taxes...more
8/18/2023
/ Apportionment ,
Certiorari ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Controlled Foreign Corporations ,
Federal Taxes ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
SCOTUS ,
Sixteenth Amendment ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
A federal district court ruled in a high-profile case that the Justice Department may rely on common law rather than the statutory notice of tax deficiency procedure in the Internal Revenue Code to assert a federal income tax...more
Three courts - the Supreme Court, the Sixth Circuit, and the Tax Court - recently rejected administrative guidance in tax cases because the guidance was either wrong as applied, unnecessary, or inapplicable.
The...more