Photo of Rita N. Halabi

Rita Halabi is an associate in the Tax Department. She advises public, private and governmental entities on a variety of U.S. federal corporate, international and partnership tax matters, including mergers and acquisitions, cross-border private equity and investment fund transactions, preferred equity investments, structured finance and fund finance transactions, restructurings and bankruptcy-related transactions, capital markets transactions and tax controversy.

Rita is devoted to thought leadership on tax-related topics. She is a contributing author to “International Tax Disputes: Arbitration, Mediation, and Dispute Management”, an international tax treatise published by Edward Elgar Publishing. Rita was recently the keynote speaker at a New York State Bar Association Tax Section event and participated in a private funds panel at an American Bar Association Tax Section conference. She serves on the leadership team of the American Bar Association Tax Section’s Investment Management Committee. In addition, Rita regularly blogs about developments in U.S. federal tax law on the Proskauer Tax Talks blog.

On January 16, 2026, in Sirius Solutions, L.L.L.P. v. Commissioner,[1] No. 24-60240 (5th Cir. Jan. 16, 2026), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the Tax Court and held that, for self-employment tax purposes, a “limited partner” means “a partner in a limited partnership that

I.          Introduction

On December 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) published final regulations (the “Final Regulations”) and proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) under section 892.[1] The Final Regulations finalize, with modifications

I.          Introduction

Should courts respect a transaction for tax purposes, when it otherwise complies with the technical requirements of the Internal Revenue Code and regulations? When should a court take the next step and consider the economic substance of a transaction and its motivations?

In two highly-awaited court decisions

Earlier this year, a New York City Administrative Law Judge found that the taxpayers’ sale of a tenancy-in-common (“TIC”) interest in real estate qualified for section 1031 “like-kind exchange” treatment even though the underlying property had been owned that very same day by a partnership, which distributed the

I. Introduction

On October 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) that would helpfully revoke the current “look-through rule” for domestic C corporation shareholders to determine whether a “real

I. Introduction

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the “Act”) into law.[1] The Act is similar to the Senate Finance Committee’s draft legislative text (the “SFC Bill”) (released on June 16, 2025), with several modifications and omissions. The Act’s key differences from

On May 28, 2025, in Soroban Capital Partners LP v. Commissioner (T.C. Memo 2025-52) (“Soroban II”), the Tax Court held the active role of limited partners in a fund manager caused them to fail to qualify as “limited partners” for purposes of section 1402(a)(13) and, therefore, the limited

On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued Notice 2025-23 (the “Notice”), announcing its intention to withdraw the recently released final regulations final regulationsthat classify certain partnership related party basis shifting transactions and substantially similar transactions as “transactions of interest”. The Notice provides taxpayers and their

Introduction

On January 10, 2025, the Treasury Department and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released final regulations (the “regulations”) classifying certain partnership related party basis adjustment transactions and substantially similar transactions as transactions of interest, a type of reportable transaction, which requires disclosure for the taxpayer and its

I.          Introduction

On January 30, 2025, Mike Crapo (R-ID), the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee released a discussion draft of the “Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act” (the “bill”), a bipartisan taxpayer rights bill intended