On October 2, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) issued Revenue Produce 2019-40 (the “Revenue Procedure”) and proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) that provide guidance on issues that have arisen as a result of the repeal of section 958(b)(4) by the tax reform act of 2017.[1] … Continue Reading
New rules to be introduced from April 2020 will make certain companies who engage workers through intermediaries (the “client”) subject to: assessing whether the workers should be treated as employees of the company; and operating employment tax (PAYE and NICs) in respect of payments made to the workers or their intermediary. Currently these obligations rest … Continue Reading
Recently, several of the presidential candidates and other prominent Democrats have suggested a number of different tax policy proposals, including wealth taxes, mark-to-market taxation, a VAT, additional taxes, increased income tax rates, and increased gift and estate taxes. This chart illustrates the various proposals, and this blog summarizes them.[1] Wealth Taxes Mark-to-Market Tax VAT Increased … Continue Reading
The U.S. tax authorities have issued substantial guidance related to the phase-out of LIBOR – relevant to lenders, borrowers and parties to financial instruments of virtually every type. In proposed regulations (“the Proposed Regulations”) released on October 9, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) addressed market … Continue Reading
On June 21, 2019, the United States Supreme Court decided North Carolina Dept. of Revenue v. Kimberly Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust (hereinafter, “Kaestner”).[1] In a unanimous opinion delivered by Justice Sotomayor, the Court held that under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause,[2] a state may not tax trust income based solely on the in-state residency … Continue Reading
In a landmark decision changing course on decades of precedent, the United States Supreme Court decided on June 21, 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., et al. Justice Kennedy, writing for the Court’s 5-4 majority, expressly overruled the physical presence rule established over fifty years ago in Bellas Hess[1] and affirmed over twenty-five years ago … Continue Reading
This post outlines at a high-level certain provisions under the recently enacted 2017 tax legislation (Pub. L. 115-97, the “Tax Act”) that may affect M&A Transactions. Some of these rules are very complex, particularly in cross-border transactions, and this post describes them in general terms without all of their fine details. The discussion of foreign … Continue Reading
The IRS announced yesterday, in IR 2017-210 (the “Advisory”), that state property taxes must be “assessed” in 2017 in order for such taxes to be prepaid in calendar year 2017 and therefore deductible in 2017. The Advisory says that state or local law determines whether and when a property tax is “assessed,” but the Advisory … Continue Reading
The United States Congress has returned to Washington D.C. from the Thanksgiving holiday, and attention returns also to U.S. tax reform legislation. It remains the publicly-stated goal of the Republican leadership in the Congress to present President Trump with legislation to sign before the end of 2017. When Congress recessed, the U.S. House of Representatives … Continue Reading
In a notice of proposed rulemaking issued on October 11, 2017 (the “NPRM”), the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) proposed an amendment to existing regulations (the “Proposed Regulation”) under Section 754 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). The Proposed Regulation eliminates the requirement … Continue Reading
Today, the Wall Street Journal considers again, on its front page above the fold, the potential benefits of corporate spin-off transactions (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-reason-investors-love-spinoffs-juicier-returns-1507681008 (subscription required)). The Journal article notes that the S&P Spin-Off Index has outperformed the S&P 500 Index by nearly 190 percentage points in the last ten years. Also discussed are the wide-ranging reasons investors favor spin-off transactions … Continue Reading
