Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Lesson From The Tax Court: Appeals Is Still Part Of The IRS, Really!

"Who is secure in all his basic needs? Who has work, spiritual care, medical care, housing, food, occasional entertainment, free clothing, free burial, free everything? The answer might be nuns and monks, but the standard reply is 'prisoners'"
— Erik von Kuenelt-Leddihn, born on this date in 1909

 “I understand that (Jones) of course used to be closely linked to the Wallabies … let’s just say that I think revenge is best served through a Bledisloe Cup,” Ms Ardern said ;-) 

Inversions are starting to revert.
When Mylan moved its corporate address to the Netherlands in 2015, the pharmaceutical company joined a wave of corporate inversion deals aided by tax advantages of a non-U.S. address. Now, Mylan’s address is coming back to the U.S. through a merger deal this week with part of Pfizer, a sign that the 2017 tax law is rendering these moves less attractive than they once were.
The deal comes a month after Allergan PLC—another inverted pharmaceutical company, based in Dublin—announced its return to a U.S. parent through a sale to AbbVie.
On balance, say tax lawyers and analysts, foreign addresses still confer a slight tax advantage.
But after the U.S. corporate tax cuts in the 2017 law, the edge is small enough that it might not be worth reputational and political costs.

Boeing 737 maxBoeing took an almost $5 billion hit to its bottom line in the second quarter over the grounding and delayed deliveries of its 737 Max planes—but tax benefits created by the charge will help the company for years to come. Thanks to a revision to the tax code made by the 2017 tax overhaul, Boeing can carry losses from the 737 Max debacle forward to offset future taxes indefinitely, tax professionals said. Before the law’s changes to tax code Section 172, it would have faced a 20-year deadline.
While it reported the charge on its financial statements, the company won’t recognize the projected expenses for tax purposes until they have actually been incurred, according to tax professionals. ...



Lesson From The Tax Court: Appeals Is Still Part Of The IRS, Really!

By Bryan Camp
Tax Court (2017)I find it useful to think of tax administration as comprising two overarching functions: (1) determining tax liabilities and (2) collecting tax liabilities.  The IRS Office of Appeals (“Appeals”) supports both functions by mediating disputes between taxpayers and either the IRS exam function or collection function.  In Aldo Fonticiella v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2019-74 (June 13, 2019), Judge Gerber teaches us that even though Appeals has a different (and wider) set of powers that often allow it to settle disputes without litigation, it still functions as an integral part of the IRS, no matter how many times Congress puts “Independent” in its title.

Empathy vs. Sympathy: Understand the Crucial Differences

 

Anthony Charles Dwight Box was at what I consider the end of the line in tax litigation — appealing his sentence from prison — when he heard from the Eleventh Circuit last month. It was not good news. The Circuit Court approved the 36 month sentence handed down by Judge Federico Moreno of the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Moreno had made an upward adjustment from the 24 to 30-month sentence called for by the guidelines because Mr. Box's legal education should have made him know better, a conviction in 1989 and failure to make any restitution.

 

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