Thursday, February 15, 2018

TOP NEWS

Analysis

Play It Safe In Reporting Bitcoin On FBAR, Specialists Say

Taxpayers who have offshore virtual currency accounts should report them on a Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts form despite a lack of clear guidance from the Internal Revenue Service, tax specialists said, noting that staying silent could prompt allegations of willful nondisclosure. Read more »

Mnuchin Vows To Close Carried Interest Loophole In Tax Law

The U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS will issue guidance within the next two weeks to avoid an end run around a requirement in the new tax law that investments must be held for three years for carried interest profits to qualify for preferential capital gains tax rates, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday. Read more »

Analysis

Tax Code’s Drug Trafficking Provision Seen As Out Of Touch

As more states allow the legal sale and use of marijuana, a decades-old section of the tax code that forbids deductions or credits for drug traffickers is preventing pot businesses from taking advantage of tax benefits, and some say the law should be repealed or amended. Read more »

Pfizer Fights In 2nd Circ. Over Interest Claims Deadline

Pfizer Inc. faced off against the U.S. government in the Second Circuit on Tuesday in a bid to extract $8.3 million of interest on a delayed tax refund, telling judges it did not miss the deadline for attempting to collect the payment. Read more »

FEDERAL

Texas Man Can't Use Frozen Funds For Appeal, 5th Circ. Says

A Texas frozen foods businessman convicted for a $5.3 million tax and wire fraud scheme doesn't have a Sixth Amendment right to use funds claimed by the government for a $1.2 million restitution order to hire counsel for his appeal, a Fifth Circuit panel said Wednesday. Read more »

Ex-CEO Hid Millions, Lived Large Off Pa. Co., Feds Charge

Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh announced on Wednesday that they’d slapped the ex-CEO of a health-care management firm with charges for allegedly orchestrating a multimillion-dollar tax fraud scheme aimed at hiding personal income from the Internal Revenue Service. Read more »

INTERNATIONAL

Countries Must Step Up Energy Taxes, OECD Says

Countries around the world need to better match their energy taxes to the environmental costs of carbon emissions, according to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report released Wednesday, which said current tax rates are largely too low to have an impact. Read more »

EXPERT ANALYSIS

Recent Trends In Structuring Risk Retention Vehicles

In the wake of the financial crisis, the U.S. and Europe enacted “risk retention” rules that require sponsors of securitization vehicles to maintain a financial interest in those vehicles. Here, attorneys with Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP look at the “capitalized management vehicle” structure that many collateral managers are using to comply with the rules, and the likely impact of a recent D.C. Circuit ruling. Read more »

The Impact Of Kokesh So Far, And What's Next: Part 2

Kokesh changed the paradigm for remedies in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions, but the potential ramifications go well beyond what initially meets the eye. As we are starting to see, Kokesh's full impact will not be limited to disgorgement or the SEC, say attorneys with King & Spalding LLP. Read more »

Considerations For Attorneys Using Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools can empower attorneys to work more efficiently, deepen and broaden their areas of expertise, and provide increased value to clients, which in turn can improve legal transparency, dispute resolution and access to justice. But there are some common pitfalls already apparent in the legal industry, say Ben Allgrove and Yoon Chae of Baker McKenzie. Read more »

LEGAL INDUSTRY

Sailing Looks Clear For 10th Circ., Other Judge Picks

President Donald Trump’s nominees to the Tenth Circuit and three other federal courts look to have a clear path forward after they laid out their judicial philosophies before a Senate panel Wednesday, their thoughts ranging from giving more time for jury selection to encouraging more “coordination” between district courts and the patent office. Read more »

Ex-Simpson Thacher Clerk Upends Insider Trading Sentence

The Third Circuit on Wednesday vacated a 46-month prison sentence for a former Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP managing clerk convicted over his role in a $5.6 million insider trading scheme, on the same day that a district court judge reduced the civil penalty sought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from $2 million to $25,000. Read more »

Pro Bono Spotlight

Polsinelli Wins Asylum For Child Immigrants With Big Dreams

After enduring years of physical and sexual abuse in Honduras, two teenage sisters with big dreams to help others in their new lives were recently granted asylum in the U.S., following three years of pro bono advocacy by a team of attorneys at Polsinelli. Read more »

Legal Tech Download: A Hackathon And Alternative Brands

The world of legal technology is quickly evolving, with new products coming to market in rapid succession. Here, Law360 takes a look at five recent developments. Read more »

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