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.

Introduction

On December 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) published final regulations (the “Final Regulations”) on section 752[1] regarding the allocation of partnership recourse liabilities in situations in which multiple partners and related parties bear part or all of

I. Introduction

On January 17, 2025, news sources reported that Republican members of Congress circulated a detailed list of legislative policy options, including tax proposals. This blog post summarizes some of the tax proposals and corresponding revenue estimates mentioned in the list.

II.        Individuals

(a)        SALT Reform Options

The

On December 23, 2024, in Denham Capital Management LP v. Commissioner (T.C. Memo. 2024-114), the Tax Court reaffirmed its earlier ruling in Soroban Capital Partners LP v. Commissioner (161 T.C. No. 12.) that active limited partners of a state law limited partnership are not entitled to the “limited partner exception”

The IRS and Senator Warren Raise Concerns about Lodging and Health Care REITs

    I. Introduction

    On September 3, 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) urging it to “increase enforcement scrutiny of REITs, especially large health and hospitality REITs that may be

    Introduction

    On April 9, 2024, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued two sets of proposed Treasury Regulations related to section 4501, REG-115710-22, which provides guidance on the application of section 4501, and REG-118499-23 (together with REG-115710-22, the

    1. Introduction

    On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued final regulations[1] on the definition of “domestically controlled” real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) (the “Final Regulations”). The Final Regulations retain

    On March 11, 2024, the Biden Administration released the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget, and the “General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 Revenue Proposals,” which is commonly referred to as the “Green Book.” The Green Book summarizes the Administration’s tax proposals contained in the Budget. The Green Book is not

    I. Executive Summary

    On February 15, 2024, the IRS and Treasury issued a supplemental notice to a prior notice from December 2022, to correct a petition requesting that the Superfund Chemical Tax apply to polyphenylene sulfide. While the supplemental notice is narrow in scope, the IRS and Treasury have requested

    Introduction

    Section 1402(a)(13) of the Internal Revenue Code provides that the distributive share of “limited partners, as such” from a partnership is not subject to self-employment tax.[1]  Managers of private equity and hedge funds are routinely structured as limited partnerships to exclude management and incentive fees from self-employment

    On July 11, 2023, the Senate Finance Committee released an open letter to the Digital Asset Community asking a variety of questions in connection with possible future legislation. Public comments must be emailed to the Senate Finance Committee staff at responses@finance.senate.gov by September 8, 2023. The questions are related to the following nine general areas.

    • Marking-to-market for traders and dealers;
    • Trading safe harbor;
    • Treatment of loans of digital assets;
    • Wash sales;
    • Constructive sales;
    • Timing and source of income earned from staking and mining;
    • Nonfunctional currency;
    • FATCA and FBAR reporting; and
    • Valuation and substantiation.

    The balance of this blog describes each area, lists each question, and discusses certain of them.