McDermott Will & Emery
Subscribe to McDermott Will & Emery's PostsMcDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. Our team works seamlessly across practices, industries and more than 20 locations to deliver highly effective—and often unexpected—solutions that propel success. More than 1,200 lawyers strong, we bring our personal passion and legal prowess to bear in every matter for our clients and the people they serve.
IRS Provides Guidance on Reliance of FAQs for Penalty Protection Purposes
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Oct 18, 2021
Posted In IRS Guidance
On October 15, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a news release and fact sheet for IRS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which are typically posted on the IRS’s website. The purpose of the fact sheet is to confirm and explain the extent to which FAQs can be relied upon for purposes of avoiding civil...
Continue Reading
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in One Tax Case, Denies it in Several Others
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Oct 6, 2021
Posted In Appellate Courts, Court Procedure Matters, Trial Courts
Historically, the Supreme Court of the United States rarely grants petitions for certiorari in tax cases, and it appears this trend continues in the current term. On September 30, 2021, the Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Boechler, P.C. v. Commissioner. The case presents the question of whether Internal Revenue Code Section 6330(d)(1),...
Continue Reading
District Court Broadly Interprets Informal Claim Doctrine
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Oct 5, 2021
Posted In Court Procedure Matters, Tax Refunds, Trial Courts
Internal Revenue Code (Code) section 7803(a)(3)(C) provides that taxpayers have “the right to pay no more than the correct amount of tax.” However, there are two relevant considerations to this “right.” First, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must take the appropriate steps before it can assess and collect any amount of tax beyond that reported...
Continue Reading
Show Me the Money: IRS Introduces Webpage for Large Refunds Subject to JCT Review
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 23, 2021
Posted In IRS Audits, IRS Guidance, Tax Refunds
When we previously wrote about the Joint Committee on Taxation’s (JCT) process for reviewing refund claims granted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), we explained that the IRS generally must submit proposed refunds in excess of $5 million for corporate taxpayers and $2 million for all other taxpayers to the JCT before any such refunds...
Continue Reading
The Results are in: IRS Appeals Retains Discretion to Continue to Allow Exam Teams and Chief Counsel to Attend Conferences
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 14, 2021
Posted In IRS Appeals
The IRS Independent Office of Appeals (IRS Appeals, Appeals) has seen many changes over the past several years. One of the more controversial and publicized change related to the 2017 pilot program to test whether inviting Large Business & International (LB&I) exam teams and Chief Counsel attorneys to engage with taxpayers and their representatives at...
Continue Reading
IRS Acknowledges Limitations on Use of Outside Contractors in Audits
By Kevin Spencer, Evan Walters and McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 10, 2021
Posted In IRS Audits, IRS Guidance, Trial Courts
Several years ago, it came to light that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had hired a law firm to assist with transfer pricing matters in an ongoing audit of a large corporate taxpayer. Contemporaneous with that hiring, the IRS issued temporary regulations providing that third-party contractors “may receive books, papers, records, or other data summoned...
Continue Reading
IRS Releases Fact Sheet on Acceptable Electronic Signatures
By Kevin Spencer, Brian Moore and McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 9, 2021
Posted In IRS Guidance
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a fact sheet, providing guidance on acceptable methods for taxpayers to electronically or digitally sign certain paper forms that they cannot file electronically. In order to provide taxpayers with greater flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS previously announced taxpayers may use digital signatures for certain forms through the...
Continue Reading
What are the Time Limits for Assessing Additional Federal Tax and Filing a Refund Claim?
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 3, 2021
Posted In IRS Audits, IRS Guidance, Tax Reform, Tax Refunds
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must follow the “statute of limitations” as stated in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 6501 to “assess” additional federal tax. Likewise, taxpayers must seek a tax overpayment or refund within the statutory period stated in IRC Section 6511. In this article, we’ll answer some of the most common questions regarding...
Continue Reading
IRS Issues Annual “Dirty Dozen” List of Tax-Related Scams
By Kevin Spencer, Evan Walters and McDermott Will & Emery on Jul 1, 2021
Posted In IRS Guidance
Each year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) publishes a list of tax-related scams, which it calls the “Dirty Dozen.” This year, it provided a “Dirty Dozen” scam series warning taxpayers of such scams. In IR-2021-135 (June 28, 2021), the IRS rolled out its “Dirty Dozen” list for 2021, warning taxpayers to look out for 12...
Continue Reading
Ninth Circuit Holds Tax Form is Substance
By Kevin Spencer and McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 4, 2021
Posted In Appellate Courts, Court Procedure Matters, Trial Courts
The substance over form doctrine (and related step transaction and economic substance doctrines) are often invoked by courts to disallow tax consequences that seem too good to be true. Courts have struggled for years with how to properly apply these doctrines. Those advocating against application usually rely on the famous passage by Judge Learned Hand...
Continue Reading
