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Weekly IRS Roundup September 21 – September 25, 2020

by McDermott Will & Emery | Oct 2, 2020 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform

Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of September 21, 2020 – September 25, 2020. Additionally, for continuing updates on the tax impact of COVID-19, please visit our resource page here.

September 21, 2020: The IRS released Announcement 2020-12 to detail information reporting requirements for taxpayers seeking forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

September 21, 2020: The IRS published final regulations related to bonus depreciation. The rules provide additional guidance to final regulations issued in 2019.

September 21, 2020: The IRS published final regulations providing guidance for certain foreign persons that recognize gain or loss from the sale or exchange of an interest in a partnership that is engaged in a trade or business within the United States.

September 21, 2020: The IRS published final regulations clarifying that certain deductions allowed to an estate or non-grantor trust are not miscellaneous non-itemized deductions.

September 22, 2020: The IRS issued proposed regulations to modify the ownership attribution rules applicable to outbound transfers of stock or securities of a domestic corporation under section 367(a) and narrow the scope of foreign corporations that are treated as controlled foreign corporations for purposes of the look-through rule under section 954(c)(6).

September 22, 2020: The IRS published final regulations related to the downward attribution for ownership determination of controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) following changes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

September 24, 2020: The IRS announced that it will provide tax relief for victims of Hurricane Sally by extending the deadline for filing and payment deadlines that would have been due October 15, 2020, until January 15, 2021.

September 25, 2020: The IRS updated the instructions for Form 8858: Information Return of US Persons with Respect to Foreign Disregarded Entities (FDEs) and Foreign Branches (FBs) to reflect changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

September 25, 2020: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2020-40, dated September 28, 2020, containing the following highlights: Notice 2020-66 (Administrative); Announcement 2020-17 (Employee Plans Administrative); Notice 2020-72 (Employee Plans); Notice 2020-59 (Income Tax); Notice 2020-71 (Income Tax); REG-107911-18 (Income Tax); Rev. Proc. 2020-41 (Income Tax); Rev. Rul. 2020-19 (Income Tax); TD 9905 (Income Tax).

September 25, 2020: The IRS released its weekly list of written determinations (e.g., Private Letter Rulings, Technical Advice Memorandums and Chief Counsel Advice).

Special thanks to Brian Moore in our Washington, DC, office for this week’s roundup.

Weekly IRS Roundup August 17 – August 21, 2020

by McDermott Will & Emery | Aug 26, 2020 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform

Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of August 17, 2020 – August 21, 2020. Additionally, for continuing updates on the tax impact of COVID-19, please visit our resource page here.

August 19, 2020: The IRS requested comments from large corporate taxpayers currently utilizing the procedures under Revenue Procedure 94-69 to disclose changes in tax positions after the opening of an examination. The IRS is considering obsoleting Revenue Procedure 94-69, which is available to a small group of large corporate taxpayers. Revenue Procedure 94-69 provides special procedures for taxpayers that are subject to the (former) Coordinated Examination Program to show additional tax due or make disclosures to avoid the imposition of accuracy-related penalties for negligence, disregard of rules or regulations or substantial understatement of income tax under sections 6662(b)(1) and (b)(2). Comments are due by October 19, 2020.

August 19, 2020: The IRS published a practice unit concerning the taxability of distributions from an S corporation that either (1) does not have accumulated earnings and profits (AE&P), or (2) makes distributions from sources other than AE&P; that is, nondividend distributions made from the accumulated adjustments account, other adjustments account or a shareholder-level previously taxed income account from before 1983 to the extent it still exists. The practice unit also addresses what items to consider to determine the taxability of nondividend distributions, liquidating distributions and sale-or-exchange redemption distributions.

August 19, 2020: The IRS published a practice unit concerning the last-in first-out (LIFO) pooling method and taxpayers who may elect to compute opening and closing inventories for goods using LIFO.

August 20, 2020: The IRS published a memorandum concerning guidance for Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) employees on the types of cases accepted into TAS under Criteria 9 – Public Policy. The Taxpayer Advocate is adding four cases that fit the policy; (1) organizations where the IRS automatically revoked their tax-exempt status for failure to file an annual return or notice for three consecutive years; (2) cases involving any tax account-related issue referred to TAS from a Congressional office, including limited Economic Impact Payment (EIP) issues; (3) cases involving revocation, limitation or denial of a passport; and (4) cases that have been referred to a Private Collection Agency for collection of a federal tax debt.

August 20, 2020: The IRS published corrections to Treasury Decision 9614, which was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Treasury Decision 9614 contained final regulations that apply to transfers of certain property by a domestic corporation to a foreign corporation in certain nonrecognition exchanges, or to distributions of stock of certain foreign corporations by a domestic corporation in certain nonrecognition distributions. The corrections are effective on August 20, 2020.

August 21, 2020: The IRS announced it has temporarily stopped mailing notices to taxpayers with [...]

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Weekly IRS Roundup August 10 – August 14, 2020

by McDermott Will & Emery | Aug 18, 2020 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform

Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of August 10, 2020 – August 14, 2020. Additionally, for continuing updates on the tax impact of COVID-19, please visit our resource page here.

August 10, 2020: The IRS published corrections to a notice of proposed rulemaking related to section 245A(e) (Hybrid Dividends) that was published in the Federal Register on April 8, 2020. The notice contained proposed regulations that adjust hybrid deduction accounts to take into account earnings and profits of a controlled foreign corporation that are included in income by a US shareholder. The corrections are effective on August 11, 2020.

August 10, 2020: The IRS published corrections to final regulations from Treasury Decision 9896 that were published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. The final regulations provide guidance regarding hybrid dividends and certain amounts paid or accrued pursuant to hybrid arrangements, which generally involve arrangements whereby US and foreign tax law classify a transaction or entity differently for tax purposes. The correction is effective on August 12, 2020.

August 12, 2020: The IRS published a memorandum that modifies Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) case acceptance criteria for cases involving Economic Impact Payments (EIPs).

August 12, 2020: The IRS announced changes to user fees relating to certain requests for letter rulings and determinations that will take effect on January 4, 2021. The increased user fees described in this announcement will be reflected in Rev. Proc. 2021-4, which will be published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2021-1 on January 4, 2021.

August 13, 2020: The IRS published a practice unit concerning the identification, review of the computation and determination of the circumstances when section 986(c) recognition is appropriate in the pre-Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) environment. The practice unit addresses two issues: (1) Did the taxpayer correctly compute section 986(c) exchange gain or loss on the distribution of previously taxed earnings and profits (PTEP) to its US parent?; and (2) Was the distribution of previously taxed earnings and profits to the US parent resulting in the section 986(c) exchange gain or loss part of a step transaction that should be collapsed, a transaction lacking a business purpose and/or a transaction that lacks economic substance?

August 14, 2020: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2020-34, dated August 17, 2020, containing the following: (1) REG-111879-20 (Employment Tax); (2) TD 9904 (Employment Tax); (3) REG-112042-19 (Excise Tax); (4) Notice 2020-58 (Income Tax); and (5) REG-132766-18 (Income Tax).

August 14, 2020: The IRS published corrections to final regulations (TD 9885) that were published in the Federal Register on Friday, December 6, 2019. The final regulations implement the base erosion and anti-abuse tax, which is designed to prevent the reduction of tax liability by certain large corporate taxpayers through certain payments [...]

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Tax Reform Insights: IRS Proposes Section 163(j) Regulations – New Business Interest Expenses Deduction Limit

by David Sherwood and Kevin Hall | Dec 26, 2018 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform, Uncategorized

On November 26, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued proposed regulations (Proposed Regulations) pursuant to section 163(j). Public Law 115-97, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), amended Internal Revenue Code (Code) Section 163 by modifying paragraph (j) to limit the amount of business interest a taxpayer may deduct for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017. The amendment generally limits the deduction for business interest to the sum of a taxpayer’s business interest income and thirty percent of a taxpayer’s adjusted taxable income (ATI) for the taxable year.

The Code Section 163(j) limit is also increased by a taxpayer’s “floor plan financing interest,” which is certain interest used to finance the acquisition of motor vehicles held for sale or lease. Code Section 163(j)(8) defines ATI as a taxpayer’s taxable income computed without regard to: any item of income, gain, deduction, or loss which is not properly allocable to a trade or business; any business interest or business interest income; any net operating loss deduction under Code Section 172; the amount of any deduction for qualified business income under Code Section 199A; and in the case of taxable years beginning before January 1, 2022, any deduction allowable for depreciation, amortization, or depletion.

The Proposed Regulations address a variety of issues, including the following:

Trade or Business. New Code Section 163(j) defines business interest income and expense as amounts that are “properly allocable to a trade or business,” but it does not define trade or business.” The Proposed Regulations define a “trade or business” by reference to Code Section 162 because Code Section 162(a) provides the “most established and developed definition of trade or business.”
Interest. The Proposed Regulations define “interest” broadly to include other ordinary income items similar to interest, such as substitute interest payments in securities lending transactions, loan commitment fees, debt issuance costs, Code Section 707(c) guaranteed payments for the use of capital, and factoring income. Proposed Regulation § 1.163(j)-3 introduces rules, including ordering rules, for the relationship between Code Section 163(j) and other provisions affecting interest.
S Corporations. Proposed Regulation § 1.163(j)-6 provides guidance regarding the application of the Code Section 163(j) deduction to partnerships and S corporations.
CFCs. The Proposed Regulations provide that Code Section 163(j) may apply to limit the deductibility of a controlled foreign corporation’s (CFC’s) business interest expense, thereby potentially limiting a CFC’s deduction of business interest for purposes of computing subpart F income and tested income under Code Section 951A(c)(2)(A).
ECI. The Proposed Regulations also provide that Code Section 163(j) applies to foreign corporations and other foreign persons for purposes of computing income effectively connected with a US trade or business.

The Proposed Regulations provide a variety of other rules. Some of the notable provisions include rules applicable to REITs, RICs, tax-exempt entities and consolidated group members. They also provide rules regarding the disallowed business interest expense carryforwards of C corporations and rules regarding elections for excepted trades or businesses and rules for allocating expenses and [...]

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Proposed Regulations under Section 956 Provide Benefits for Corporate Taxpayers

by Bradford E. LaBonte, Lowell D. Yoder and Timothy S. Shuman | Nov 20, 2018 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform, Uncategorized

On October 31, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and US Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released proposed regulations (REG-114540-18) (the Proposed Regulations) that would prevent, in many cases, income inclusions for corporate US shareholders of controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) under section 956. As a result, among other considerations, the Proposed Regulations could significantly expand the ability of corporate US affiliates to benefit from credit support of CFCs.

Read the full article.

European Partner Joins Tax in the City® for Last Seattle Event of 2018

by McDermott Will & Emery | Sep 27, 2018 | Uncategorized

On September 12, 2018, McDermott held the second Tax in the City® Seattle event this year and was pleased to welcome our partner Nina Siewert from our Frankfurt office to join US panelists Elizabeth Chao, Britt Haxton, Kristen Hazel, Sandra McGill and Diann Smith. The team’s key takeaways include:

Taxation of the Digital Economy – In March, the European Union proposed a 3 percent interim tax on digital services and a long-term expansion to the definition of a permanent establishment to include a “significant digital presence.” These proposals are unlikely to be passed during 2018. In the meantime, individual countries have passed or are considering unilateral measures to tax digital services.
Post-Wayfair – The Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision is good news for states, brick and mortar retailers and software compliance companies, and bad news for online retailers, start-ups and marketplace providers. Its impact on localities and foreign sellers remain to be seen.
Taxation of Multinationals: New Developments in US Tax Reform – Taxpayers should consider issues related to the new Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT), including whether royalties can be excluded from the BEAT, whether netting or a look-through concept should apply to BEAT; and how BEAT applies to cost-sharing agreements. The section 965 proposed regulations provide guidance about how basis adjustments apply to controlled foreign corporations (CFCs).
The Multilateral Instrument (MLI) – US taxpayers should be familiar with the MLI, which goes into effect in 2019. In order for the MLI to apply, both countries must sign the MLI and must opt into the same treaty provisions.

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