Kevin Spencer
Subscribe to Kevin Spencer's PostsKevin Spencer focuses his practice on tax controversy issues. Kevin represents clients in complicated tax disputes in court and before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at the IRS Appeals and Examination divisions. In addition to his tax controversy practice, Kevin has broad experience advising clients on various tax issues, including tax accounting, employment and reasonable compensation, civil and criminal tax penalties, IRS procedures, reportable transactions and tax shelters, renewable energy, state and local tax, and private client matters. After earning his Master of Tax degree, Kevin had the privilege to clerk for the Honorable Robert P. Ruwe on the US Tax Court. Read Kevin Spencer's full bio.
Court Attack On FATCA Fails
By K. Christy Vouri-Misso and Kevin Spencer on Apr 28, 2016
Posted In Court Procedure Matters, Trial Courts, Uncategorized
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and six other plaintiffs’ efforts to challenge parts of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) were thwarted when the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio dismissed their claims for lack of standing. Crawford v. Dep’t of Treasury, S.D. Ohio, US District Court for the Southern District of...
Continue Reading
IRS Commissioner Asks Congress to Overturn Loving
By Joshua M. Ellenberg and Kevin Spencer on Apr 22, 2016
Posted In Appellate Courts, IRS Appeals, Uncategorized
Following a report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) that criticized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for failing to protect taxpayer financial information from cybersecurity threats, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has requested that US Congress give the IRS the power to license tax preparers. Prior efforts by the IRS to regulate paid tax preparers...
Continue Reading
Death of the CAP Program?
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Apr 13, 2016
Posted In IRS Audits, IRS Guidance, Uncategorized
According to participants in a recent webcast, the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Large Business & International Division (LB&I) is no longer accepting applicants for its Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) program. CAP is a real-time audit program that seeks to resolve the tax treatment of all or most return issues before the tax return is filed. ...
Continue Reading
Former Tax Court Judge Indicted for Tax Evasion
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Apr 5, 2016
Posted In Trial Courts, Uncategorized
On April 4, 2016, the US Attorney for the District of Minnesota announced a federal grand jury indictment charging former US Tax Court Judge Diane L. Kroupa and her husband with conspiring to evade the assessment of taxes. In a multi-count indictment, both were charged with conspiracy, tax evasion, making and subscribing false tax returns...
Continue Reading
Tax Court Amends Evidence Rules
By Kevin Spencer, McDermott Will & Emery and McDermott Will & Emery on Apr 4, 2016
Posted In Court Procedure Matters, Uncategorized
On March 28, 2016, the U.S. Tax Court announced interim changes to its Rule of Practice and Procedure to incorporate changes made by Congress at the end of 2015. The interim changes impact several areas of the Tax Court’s Rules, including the impact of bankruptcy proceedings on the court’s jurisdiction, actions for review of failure...
Continue Reading
Preparing for Country-by-Country Reporting in 2016
By Kevin Spencer on Mar 30, 2016
Posted In IRS Guidance, Transfer Pricing Resource, Uncategorized
Country-by Country (CbC) reporting is on the horizon for large US multi-national enterprises (MNE). As part of the broader Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) project undertaken by the Group of 20 (G20) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States will soon require the parent entity of large US MNE groups...
Continue Reading
IRS Determines Refined Coal Transaction Doesn’t Have Economic Substance
By Kevin Spencer, Madeline Chiampou Tully and Philip Tingle on Mar 24, 2016
Posted In IRS Guidance, Uncategorized
On March 17, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a Field Attorney Advice Memorandum, 20161101F (Dec. 3, 2015) (the FAA). In the FAA, the IRS concluded that an investment in a partnership designed to deliver a tax credit allocation did not have a potential for profit or risk of loss, was not a meaningful...
Continue Reading
IRS Loses Summary Judgment In Mylan Case
By Chelsea Hess and Kevin Spencer on Mar 16, 2016
Posted In Court Procedure Matters, Trial Courts, Uncategorized
On March 10, 2016, Tax Court Judge Laro denied the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) motion for summary judgment in Mylan’s challenge of the IRS’s determination that approximately $372 million should be treated as ordinary income. See Mylan Inc. and Subsidiaries v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, T.C.M. 2016-45. In its Tax Court petition, Mylan seeks a...
Continue Reading
Introducing McDermott’s Blog Series on LB&I’s International Practice Units
By Kevin Spencer on Mar 9, 2016
Posted In IRS Guidance, Transfer Pricing Resource, Uncategorized
As part of an overall strategy and reorganization to utilize resources more efficiently, the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’s) Large Business and International (LB&I) Division has developed a series of International Practice Units. These Practice Units typically consist of a set of slides explaining how agents in the field should approach a particular issue of interest...
Continue Reading
Substantial Changes to Auditing Partnerships
By Kevin Spencer on Feb 2, 2016
Posted In IRS Audits, IRS Guidance, Uncategorized
On November 2, 2015, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was signed into law, and which instituted significant changes to the rules governing the federal tax audits of partnerships for tax years after 2017. In the absence of affirmatively electing partner-level adjustment, the new rules impose entity-level tax liability for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit...
Continue Reading
