Emboldened by significant victories in three Tax Court cases involving micro-captive insurance companies, on Jan. 31, 2020, the IRS announced that it is establishing 12 new examination teams to assist in the audits of abusive micro-captive insurance transactions. The IRS expects the audit teams to immediately begin new examinations that will impact several thousand taxpayers involved in … Continue Reading
The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, signed into law Dec. 20, 2019, includes a division that is known as the SECURE Act,1 which made major changes to the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules applicable to both qualified plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). For purposes of this GT Alert, qualified plan participants and IRA owners … Continue Reading
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a provision increasing taxes on tax-exempt organizations. New Internal Revenue Code Section 512(a)(7) required that tax-exempt organizations include in computing unrelated business taxable income any amount incurred by the tax-exempt organization (i) for any qualified transportation fringe benefit for an employee (generally, costs of mass transit passes and … Continue Reading
On Sept. 18, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill No. 5 (AB 5) into law in California. The landmark legislation, which came into effect Jan. 1, 2020, promises to significantly expand the number of workers treated as employees for state tax and labor purposes. Although the legislation was aimed at participants in the “gig … Continue Reading
On Dec. 19, the United States Department of the Treasury released final regulations related to investment in Qualified Opportunity Zones and Qualified Opportunity Funds (544 pages). These highly anticipated regulations and related guidance provide critical information to investors, Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs), and project sponsors/operators involved in real estate, venture capital, operating businesses, and project finance in Qualified Opportunity … Continue Reading
While the IRS has been cracking down on syndicated conservation easements for over ten years, earlier this year Chuck Rettig, the Commissioner of the IRS, announced several campaign areas upon which the IRS would heighten focus in the coming year. Following through on this promise, on Nov. 12, 2019, the IRS announced a significant increase … Continue Reading
On Sept. 16, 2019, the IRS announced it is offering settlements to certain taxpayers with open audits of micro-captive insurance transactions. The IRS has targeted these micro-captive insurance transactions since 2014, and they were designated as transactions of interest in 2016.1 Although micro-captive insurance transactions have gained popularity among closely held entities, the IRS has challenged such … Continue Reading
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided a 100% first year write-off for many types of capital expenditures. Congressional tax writers intended this benefit to be available for leasehold improvements, which would be a boon to retail and restaurant businesses and their landlords. Unfortunately, in the rush to get the tax bill pushed through, … Continue Reading
On Aug. 9, 2019, the IRS issued proposed regulations (Proposed Regulations) addressing the U.S. federal income tax treatment of cross-border cloud transactions. The Proposed Regulations will not become effective until final rules are adopted. By way of background, the last time the IRS meaningfully addressed the taxation of cross-border digital content transfers was in October … Continue Reading
On June 21, 2019, in a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held as unconstitutional a North Carolina statute that had been interpreted by North Carolina to mean that a trust owed income tax to North Carolina whenever a beneficiary of the trust lived in the state, even if, in the relevant year, the beneficiary … Continue Reading
This GT Alert addresses the recent Court of Appeal decision in DFS Group LP v. County of San Mateo (Calif. Ct. App., 1st Dist., January 31, 2019, 31 Cal.App.5th 1059; Petition for Review denied by Calif. Supreme Ct., April 24, 2019), which held that local assessors and assessment appeals boards must address intangible assets in their assessment of property for … Continue Reading
Campaign for Compliance Last year the IRS announced a new campaign to target “Withholding and International Individual Compliance” regarding Forms 1042 and 1042-S. Those who make payments of certain U.S.-source income to foreign persons must comply with withholding, deposit, and reporting requirements. The IRS campaign promised to address “withholding agents who make such payments but … Continue Reading
The Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980, as amended (FIRPTA), imposes tax on gain realized on disposition by nonresident alien individuals or foreign corporations (non-U.S. persons) of a U.S. real property interests (USRPI) by treating such gain as effectively connected with the conduct of a U.S. trade or business by such non-U.S. … Continue Reading
While the advance refunding of tax-advantaged bonds remains a thing of the past, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued guidance on May 22, Notice 2019-39, expanding the realm of current refundings to permit the current refunding of all existing and future tax-exempt bond programs that impose bond volume cap, issuance time deadlines, or both, for … Continue Reading
On May 23, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Department issued final regulations (the Final Section 956 Regulations) intended to mitigate the impact of Section 956 of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) for certain domestic corporations. Consistent with the proposed regulations issued in November 2018 (see previous GT Alert here), the Final … Continue Reading
On April 25, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided that refundable state tax brownfield credits are taxable income for federal purposes. The court held in Ginsburg v. United States, “The excess amount of the brownfield redevelopment tax credit received by the Ginsburgs in 2013 is taxable gross income because it … Continue Reading
Greenberg Traurig is pleased to provide our guidance on the Second Installment of Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund (QOF) Proposed Regulations issued by the U.S. Treasury on April 17, 2019. Here are the links to our two-part guidance: Part I – Executive Summary: IRS Issues Second Installment of Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund (QOF) Proposed Regulations … Continue Reading
Our January 2019 GT Benefits and Compensation Alert addressed the unprecedented level of potential liability for compliance failures in 401(k) and other retirement plans and the importance of performing a plan compliance review and correcting plan document or operational failures before an IRS auditor knocks on the door. Doing nothing and playing the audit lottery … Continue Reading
On April 3, 2019, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2019-17, providing that the general public use requirement of section 142(d) of the Internal Revenue Code (relating to residential rental projects) permits the use of housing preferences and occupancy restrictions consistent with the provisions of the low-income housing tax credit requirements under section 42(g)(9) of the … Continue Reading
The Department of the Treasury and IRS provided two New Year’s Eve presents to the tax-exempt bond community. One was the finalization of the public notice regulations, and the second was the issuance of the proposed reissuance regulations, both of which have been long promised, and both of which were published in the Federal Register … Continue Reading
The Department of the Treasury and IRS provided two New Year’s Eve presents to the tax-exempt bond community. The first is the finalization of the public notice and approval regulations, commonly referred to as the TEFRA Regulations (the Final Regulations), and the second is the issuance of the proposed reissuance regulations. Both developments have been … Continue Reading
On Dec. 13, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department issued proposed regulations (the Proposed Regulations) that provide certain guidance and relief from the regulatory burden associated with Sections 1471 through 1474 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), commonly referred to as Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), as well as with respect … Continue Reading
As commercial real property owners in Florida are likely aware, the Sunshine State imposes its sales tax on rental payments for the lease of real property. The general 6 percent state-level tax was reduced to 5.8 percent for 2018. The legislature passed a law to further reduce the state-level rate to 5.7 percent for occupancy … Continue Reading
On Nov. 26, 2018, the IRS issued proposed regulations under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 163(j) enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the Proposed Regulations). Generally, IRC § 163(j) limits certain taxpayers’ business interest expense deduction to the sum of (i) the taxpayer’s current year business interest income, (ii) 30 … Continue Reading
