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.
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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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