Spin-offs have become increasingly popular with innovative companies as a method of unlocking shareholder value, but the transaction is not always tax-free, particularly for international employees holding equity awards or...more
On November 18, 2022, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published private letter ruling 202246008 (the PLR), which concluded that a transaction qualifies as a tax-free spin-off under Section 3552 despite the fact that the...more
Corporate reorganizations and spin-off transactions are transactions where there is often a great deal of incentive to qualify for tax-free treatment. In many cases, the amount of tax at issue justifies obtaining a private...more
Takeaways - Tax law changes in the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) would limit the amount of value a company could extract in a spin-off by using a debt-for-debt exchange. Companies may be able to achieve most of the...more
On January 14, 2022, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") released Revenue Procedure 2022-10, which establishes a "fast-track processing" pilot program for certain private letter ruling requests that are solely or primarily...more
Yesterday, on December 19, 2021, Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) said that he opposes the Build Back Better Act, which effectively prevents its passage. While there are no immediate prospects for the Build Back Better Act to...more
The Cadwalader Tax team has prepared a case study summarizing General Electric’s recently announced plans to split into three publicly traded companies through sequenced tax-free spin-off transactions. ...more
Speaking at several tax conferences this month, several senior IRS officials, including the Associate Chief Counsel, Corporate, discussed the nuances of the device requirement for spinoffs and signaled a willingness to relax...more
On February 28, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released PLR 202009002, the first private letter ruling that will potentially permit a tax-free spin-off of a research and development (“R&D”) intensive business...more
The “five-year active trade or business” or “ATB” requirement of section 355 is notorious for defeating many otherwise promising tax-free spin-off transactions. Consider the following common scenarios... Originally...more
On September 25, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS) released a statement announcing a study of the "active trade or business" test for tax-free spin-offs under Section 355 (the ATB Test), as applied to...more
On September 21, 2017, the IRS announced in Revenue Procedure 2017-52 (the “Pilot Program Rev. Proc.”) that it is expanding the scope of spin-off private letter ruling requests that it will consider. The pilot program is...more
On September 21, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued Revenue Procedure 2017-52 (the “Rev. Proc.”), introducing an 18-month “pilot program” in respect of corporate “spin-off,” “split-up” and “split-off”...more
The IRS announced in May that it will resume issuing private letter rulings (PLRs) on two types of spinoff transactions — leveraged spinoffs and north-south spinoffs — that had been on its “no-rule” list since 2013. In a...more
The Internal Revenue Service has announced that it will recommence issuing private letter rulings concerning whether a distributing corporation’s transfer of stock or securities of a controlled corporation (or “Spinco”) in...more
On May 3, 2017, the IRS released Revenue Ruling 2017-9, which addresses two so-called "north-south" transactions in connection with spin-offs that are intended to be nontaxable under Section 355 of the Internal Revenue Code....more
Proposed regulations issued on July 14, 2016 generally would prevent tax-free spinoffs involving companies with less than 5% active business assets and spinoffs where one company holds a substantial amount of nonbusiness...more
On July 14, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed long-anticipated regulations tightening the “device” and “active trade or business” tests that are necessary for a corporation to distribute a subsidiary in a...more
On June 7, the Treasury Department released temporary regulations (the “Temporary Regulations”) that expand the types of spinoff transactions subject to the rules under Section 337(d)2 requiring gain recognition where either...more
President Obama signed into law a bill that will significantly reform the taxation of real estate investment trusts (REITs). Most notably, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the Bill) prevents companies from...more
LTR 201542004 at first seems to involve a standard spinoff for the purpose of pursuing a reverse Morris Trust combination of Controlled with a Merger Partner, with the “significant issue” for ruling being a proposed swap of...more
The number of working days (in theory) that Congress has left to negotiate and pass a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government from shutting down on Oct. 1. Here’s hoping that the Pope’s visit to the Capitol...more
The flurry of Opco-Propco REIT conversions has hit a stumbling block this week when the IRS issued a Revenue Procedure announcing a “no rule” policy for a key corporate tax issue for many REIT spin offs. Basically to do a...more
On September 14, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2015-59 (the “Notice”) and Revenue Procedure 2015-43 (the “Rev Proc”; together with the Notice, the “Spin-Off Guidance”). Under the Spin-Off Guidance,...more
Urged on by activists and institutional shareholders, a large number of companies with real estate holdings pursued real estate investment trust (REIT) conversions or spinoffs in 2014. At least half a dozen companies...more