Friday, December 1, 2017

TOP NEWS

GOP Tax Bill Hits Snags In Senate Over Deficit Concerns

The Republican tax cut bill hit multiple roadblocks in the Senate on Thursday after provisions added to win the support of fiscal conservatives were found to violate the chamber's procedural rules and a highly anticipated analysis showed that the limited economic growth spurred by the measure would not offset the cost of the proposed tax reductions. Read more »

Tax Reform Will Be Hard To Carry Out, IRS Official Says

Citing dwindling employment numbers and a short timetable, a top Internal Revenue Service official said Thursday that implementing the tax reform package nearing passage in Congress will be “a heavy lift.” Read more »

Treasury Looks Into Tax Bill Analysis After Warren Letter

After a request from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, counsel for the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration confirmed Thursday that the office has prioritized an investigation into the economic analysis that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has touted as proof the Republicans’ planned tax cuts will “pay for themselves.” Read more »

Coinbase Must Give Info To IRS For Transactions Over $20K

A California federal judge on Wednesday handed the Internal Revenue Service a partial win in the agency’s bid to seek records from Coinbase Inc., saying the virtual currency exchange must hand over information on accounts with transactions of greater than $20,000. Read more »

Loss Of SALT Deduction Would Hurt Home Values: Realtors

New research by the country’s largest real estate industry group showed that the impact of eliminating or capping deductions for state and local income, property and sales taxes, as envisioned in legislation making its way through Congress, could be worse than originally expected. Read more »

Couple Liable For FBAR Fines, Fed. Claims Court Rules

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims on Thursday found two U.S.-Canadian taxpayers were liable for penalties for failing to alert the Internal Revenue Service to foreign bank accounts, saying the fines could not be excused because of their failure to read over their tax returns. Read more »

FEDERAL

Rapper DMX Pleads Guilty To Dodging $1.7M In Taxes

Rapper DMX copped to tax evasion before a Manhattan federal judge on Thursday, admitting to dodging a $1.7 million tax bill for years and funneling payments for his performances through managers who would pay him out in cash. Read more »

House Tax Bill May Have Domino Effect On Affordable Housing

The tax bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would eliminate the tax-exempt bonds that have been crucial to getting affordable housing financed, and the change could also have a broader domino effect that lawmakers may not have been aware of when they drafted the bill, lawyers say. Read more »

Truck Dealer Tells 8th Circ. It's Owed Excise Tax Refund

An Iowa truck dealer asked the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday to revive its refund bid for excise taxes related to diesel filters, arguing that the district court failed to consider a U.S. Department of Treasury regulation under which the equipment isn’t taxable. Read more »

Mueller Strikes Deal Allowing Manafort Off House Arrest

Indicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has reached a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office for Manafort's release from house arrest in exchange for his pledging over $11 million in real estate to prevent him from fleeing, Manafort said in a court filing Thursday. Read more »

STATE & LOCAL

Citibank Loses $1.6M Tax Refund Feud At Ill. High Court

Citibank NA’s effort to claim a $1.6 million tax refund in Illinois was thwarted Thursday after the state Supreme Court unanimously reversed two lower court decisions, saying only the entity that actually remits a tax is eligible to claim a refund. Read more »

5th Circ. Wipes Out $84M Hotel-Tax Win For Texas Cities

A panel of Fifth Circuit judges said Wednesday that service fees charged by online travel companies were not subject to Texas hotel occupancy tax ordinances, overturning an $84 million award for a class of cities seeking unpaid taxes on the full amount paid for hotel rooms. Read more »

INTERNATIONAL

OECD Issues Specific Reporting Guidance For Multinationals

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Thursday released its latest round of guidance for multinational companies that are required to file financial and tax information for each country they operate in, this time focusing on specific accounting-related issues and definitions. Read more »

EU Seeks To Tackle VAT Fraud By Sharing Cross-Border Info

The European Commission on Thursday introduced new measures that it said would help close communication gaps between tax authorities and law enforcement bodies so they can better combat cross-border transactions suspected of leading to value-added tax fraud. Read more »

EXPERT ANALYSIS

Regulators, Whistleblowers And The Paradise Papers

Clients of "Paradise Papers" law firm Appleby Global should now expect that tax authorities in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere will closely scrutinize the leaked documents for evidence of tax evasion. And individuals with inside information that sheds further light on these cases stand to reap sizable rewards by filing qui tam actions, says Adam Pollock of Ford O'Brien LLP. Read more »

FinCEN Expands Anti-Money Laundering Targeting Orders

As signaled by its continued extension and expansion of its Geographic Targeting Program, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will keep the high-end real estate industry firmly in its crosshairs, and may target additional segments of the U.S. real estate sector next, say John Rollins and Ahmed Eltamami of Stout Risius Ross LLC. Read more »

10 Tips For Effective Practice Before The 5th Circ.

The Fifth Circuit is among the busiest federal circuit courts in the country. What can you do to increase your chances of reaching oral argument? And if given the opportunity, how can you present a persuasive argument? Former Fifth Circuit clerk Justin Woodard, an associate at Jones Walker LLP, shares some advice. Read more »

The Billing Evolution: How Far Along Is Your Firm?

In a recent study, 20 out of 25 law firms surveyed have made billing process improvement a top priority for 2018. Firms can foster consistency and increase efficiency at all stages of their billing cycle by focusing on a few specific procedures, say Sharon Quaintance and Christine Indiano at HBR Consulting. Read more »

LEGAL INDUSTRY

Analysis

Milbank Team Defeats Death Sentence In Murder Case

Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP attorneys have secured a pro bono victory crushing the death sentence of a man they believe is innocent and who has served 30 years on death row for the rape and murder of a child, allowing them to continue their fight for his exoneration. Read more »

Ex-Akin Gump Atty Pleads Guilty In DOJ Suit-Selling Case

A former partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP pled guilty in California federal court Wednesday to charges that he stole a sealed government complaint while still employed with the U.S. Department of Justice and tried to sell the information to a cybersecurity company then under investigation. Read more »

Trump’s 8th Circ. Pick Held Up Over Disclosure Delay

Late-released documents have threatened to trip up one of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees this week, as U.S. Senate Democrats raised concerns Thursday about having time to review what Eighth Circuit nominee Husch Blackwell LLP senior counsel L. Steven Grasz disclosed to the committee. Read more »

BigLaw Continues To Follow Cravath On Associate Bonuses

More BigLaw firms will dole out end-of-year bonuses to U.S. associates, ranging from $15,000 to $100,000, in accordance with the scale established years ago and upheld on Monday by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP. Read more »

Law360's Weekly Verdict: Legal Lions & Lambs

Morrison & Foerster LLP has earned the spot of top legal lion over the past two weeks, winning a Federal Circuit decision reviving a BASF patent related to catalytic converters, while Uber's deputy general counsel ended up on the legal lambs list after a judge blamed her for delaying the company's trade secrets litigation with Waymo. Read more »

The Top In-House Hires Of November

November's notable legal department hires include new general counsels at Barclays, the National Labor Relations Board and Deutsche Bank. Read more »

Fla. Judicial Panel Offers Sens. 10 Names For District Seats

Florida's federal judicial nominating commission on Wednesday sent the state's U.S. senators the names of 10 candidates — including seven state court judges and an acting U.S. attorney — for the five vacancies on the bench of the Southern District of Florida. Read more »

Series

What I Learned In My 1st Year: Seeing The Big Picture

When I started at the law firm where I still practice today, I discovered that very often the task at hand required not my razor-sharp analysis of the law, but my ability to read the motivations and meet the needs and expectations of actual human beings — whether through intellect, instinct, intuition or personal experience, says John Bartlett of Stites & Harbison PLLC. Read more »

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