In a recent Law360 article, tax partner and tax controversy group co-founder Kat Gregor, tax controversy counsel Elizabeth Smith and litigation associate Liz Tolon explore the tax privilege nuances associated with attorney-client privilege and other relevant analogs that exist to protect client confidentiality. Their article discusses applicable privileges in the tax context, as well as two key exceptions: waiver and the crime-fraud exception. It also examines three recent cases that highlight the practical implications of these…

On December 21, 2018, IRS and Treasury issued final regulations implementing the partnership audit regime (T.D. 9844). The final regulations largely adopt, with some changes, the proposed regulations issued in August 2018. By issuing almost 200 pages of preamble, the final regulations provide extensive discussion of which comments were incorporated and why others were not.  Likely, IRS is thinking ahead to litigation over the validity of the regulations by issuing such broad discussions of…

Data analysis is not a new concept, but it nonetheless is the center of a social and technological revolution. In recent months, we have gained significant insight into how the IRS and state taxing authorities are leveraging advanced technology and machine learning to mine the petabytes of taxpayer data that they collect and retain. To read the full article, which was recently posted to Law360, please click here.…

In a recent Law360 article, Kat Gregor commented on the IRS’s final guidance on partnership audit rules. This new guidance finalizes a subset of the IRS rules implementing the audit regime passed in the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act. A key aspect of the final rules is the definition of “partnership related items,” which looks to historic rules to define the scope of the new regime. While some may argue that the ambiguity of the TEFRA…

During the January 2019 ABA Tax Section 2019 Midyear Tax Meeting, Kat Gregor, tax partner and co-founder of the tax controversy group, discussed the new EU mandatory disclosure rules (known as DAC6 related to aggressive tax positions) and the ethical obligations of U.S. attorneys to adhere to these rules. Kat noted that “the EU rules are, on the one hand, trying to be more precise as to what they’re interested in catching, rather than in…

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Alec Oveis, an associate in the tax and benefits group is joined by Kat Gregor, a partner in the tax group and co-founder of the tax controversy group, and Andy Howard, a partner in the tax group, to discuss the investigations now underway in Europe involving so-called “cum-ex dividend trades.”…

Kat Gregor, tax partner and co-founder of the tax controversy group, examines the influx of new anti-abuse provisions around the world in this trending video.…