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Treasury and IRS Throw Out 298 Regulations and Amend 79 Others

by | Feb 13, 2018 | ,

Following up on our prior posts here and here, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have proposed to remove 298 regulations and amend 79 regulations. The Treasury’s and the IRS’s action is in response to Executive Order 13789 (April 21, 2017), which called on the Treasury and the IRS to identify and reduce tax regulatory burdens that impose undue financial burdens on US taxpayers or otherwise add undue complexity to federal tax laws.

The 298 regulations are proposed to be removed because they have no current or future applicability and, therefore, no longer provide useful guidance. However, the proposed removal is not intended to alter any non-regulatory guidance that cites or relies on these regulations. The regulations proposed to be removed fall into one of three categories:

  • Regulations interpreting provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) that have been repealed;
  • Regulations interpreting Code provision that, while not repealed, have been significantly revised, and the existing regulations do not account for these statutory changes (note that to fall within this category, the statutory changes must have rendered the entire regulation inapplicable); and
  • Regulations that, by the terms of the relevant Code provisions or the regulations themselves, are no longer applicable (g., expired temporary regulations, certain transition rules)

The 79 regulations proposed to be amended are regulations that make reference to the 298 regulations proposed to be removed.

Before the proposed regulations removing and withdrawing regulations are adopted as final regulations, the Treasury and the IRS will give consideration to any written comments provided by the public. Comments must be received by May 14, 2018. A public hearing may be scheduled if requested in writing by any person that timely submits written comments.

Practice Point: Taxpayers and practitioners may want to review the list of regulations proposed to be removed to determine whether the regulations continue to serve a useful purpose and should be retained.



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Tax Court Addresses Statute of Limitations Issues in Rafizadeh v. Commissioner

by and | Feb 12, 2018 | ,

Andrew Roberson and Elizabeth Chao recently wrote an article for Law360 entitled, “A Recent Tax Court View Of Statute Of Limitations Provisions.” The article discusses the Tax Court’s recent opinion in Rafizadeh v. Commissioner on statute of limitations for amounts reportable under Internal Revenue Code Section 6038D.

Read the full coverage on Law360 here.



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IRS Releases Second Quarter Update to 2017-2018 Priority Guidance Plan

by and | Feb 9, 2018 | ,

On February 7, 2018, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released its second quarter update to the 2017-2018 Priority Guidance Plan to identify tax issues it believes should be addressed through regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices and other published administrative guidance. The Priority Guidance Plan contains projects the Treasury hopes to complete during the 12-month period from July 2, 2017 through June 30, 2018. We previously posted on the first quarter 2017-2018 Priority Guidance plan here.

Most of the projects do not involve the issuance of new regulations, instead focus on guidance to taxpayers on a variety of tax issues important to individuals and businesses in the form of: (1) revocations of final, temporary, or proposed regulations (for our prior coverage, see here); (2) notices, revenue rulings and revenue procedures; (3) simplifying and burden reducing amendments to existing regulations; (4) proposed regulations; or (5) final regulations adopting proposed regulations. The initial 2017-2108 Priority Guidance Plan consisted of 198 guidance projects, 30 of which have already been completed. The second quarter update reflects 29 additional projects, including priority items as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) legislation enacted on December 22, 2017, and guidance published or released from October 13, 2017 through December 31, 2017.

(more…)



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A 360-Degree View: January and February 2018

by | Feb 8, 2018 | ,

Wrapping Up January – and Looking Forward to February

We invite you to view all of the topics we discussed over the last month and take a look at the upcoming tax controversy events where our lawyers will be speaking in February.

Upcoming Tax Controversy Activities in February:

February 15, 2018: David Noren will be presenting “Tax disruption: Adjusting to the shifting transfer pricing landscape” at the 2018 Tax Council Policy Institute Symposium in Washington, DC.



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Expansion of Subpart F under the Tax Reform Act

by , and | Feb 8, 2018 | ,

Under Subpart F, certain types of income and investments of earnings of a foreign corporation controlled by US shareholders (controlled foreign corporation, or CFC) are deemed distributed to the US shareholders and subject to current taxation. The recent tax reform legislation (Public Law No. 115-97) increased the amount of CFC income currently taxable to US shareholders, and expanded the CFC ownership rules, which means more foreign corporations are treated as CFCs.

 

Continue Reading.



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Expect Controversy in the Wake of Tax Reform

by and | Feb 7, 2018 | , , , ,

Tax reform is here to stay (at least for the foreseeable future). The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may receive additional funds to implement the new tax law. With lowered tax rates, accelerated expensing and forced repatriation of foreign earnings comes an increased risk of an IRS audit. This brave new tax world has left so many questions that tax advisors’ phones have been ringing off the hooks! But as the end of the 2017 year and first quarter of 2018 dust settles, be mindful of the IRS audit to come. (more…)



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Multilateral-APA-Like Program to Create International Tax Certainty for Pilot Participants

by | Feb 5, 2018 | ,

On January 23, 2018, the International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP) was launched at an orientation event in Washington, DC. The ICAP pilot is a voluntary program in which the participants will use country-by-country reporting and other information to establish multilateral agreements in order to establish early tax certainty and assurance. The ICAP handbook can be found here.

The pilot program includes eight Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) member tax administrations and eight multinational entities (one headquartered in each of the eight countries including: Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States). Under the program, the participant will engage with several jurisdictions at once in order to efficiently establish and address the specific international tax risks posed by its transfer pricing and permanent establishments. The tax administrations will jointly review the information supplied by the participant and will coordinate any follow-up questions. The participant can then engage with the tax administrations simultaneously, preventing the need for multiple APAs and resulting in fewer disputes. (more…)



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GILTI Rules Particularly Onerous for Non-C Corporation CFC Shareholders

by , and | Feb 1, 2018 | ,

The recently enacted tax reform legislation significantly expanded the application of Subpart F, including by adding a new inclusion rule for non-routine CFC income, termed “global intangible low-taxed income” (GILTI). The GILTI rules apply higher tax rates to GILTI attributed to individuals and trusts who own CFC stock (either directly or through LLCs or S corporations) than to C corporation shareholders. This article describes the difference and suggests steps individuals and trusts may take to defer or reduce the effect of the GILTI rules on individuals and trusts. Continue Reading. 


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US Tax Reform: Potential Role of the APA Program

by and | Jan 31, 2018 | , ,

US tax reform finally occurred in 2017 with what was formerly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the Act). The headline from a corporate standpoint is reduction in the maximum rate from 35 percent to 21 percent beginning in 2018. In the international context, the Act: (i) embraces a territorial system as exists with most of its trading partners; (ii) seeks to protect the US tax base from perceived cross-border erosion; and (iii) enacts an incentive for certain economic investments in the United States at a globally attractive effective tax rate (13.125 percent).

The purpose of this post is not to review the technical provisions of the Act, but to note that as each multinational enterprise (MNE) evaluates its impact on its effective tax rate strategy (both opportunities and hazards), an item to keep on the agenda may be “could a bilateral APA be of assistance?” (more…)



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Treasury Moves Forward on Proposing Withdrawal of Regulations

by and | Jan 26, 2018 | ,

As we previously discussed, the US Department of the Treasury (Treasury) announced a plan in October 2017 to repeal more than 200 regulations. The plan appears is moving forward based on remarks by Acting Chief Counsel William M. Paul earlier this week at the New York State Bar Association Section meeting that the Internal Revenue Service will soon propose 200 – 300 tax regulations (including longstanding temporary and proposed regulations) for withdrawal as part of President Donald Trump’s 2017 executive order creating a Treasury Regulatory Reform Task Force. Practitioners will have the opportunity to comment before the regulations are withdrawn.

Practice Point: Comments from taxpayers and practitioners will be instrumental in ensuring that seemingly obsolete regulations do not still have effect in other areas or negatively impact tax reporting positions. We will continue to monitor Treasury’s plan and provide more information once the proposal is released.



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