The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the case of whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s individual mandate is unconstitutional. A decision on this issue is likely not to occur until next year but protecting a possible tax refund cannot wait. A claim for a tax refund must be made no later than three years from the filing of the income tax return in question or the refund will be barred. Read…

On July 17, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) announced the terms of an expansion of the Main Street Lending Program to include loan facilities that would allow for nonprofit borrowers. The Main Street Lending Program opened on June 15, 2020, and is meant to increase access to capital for small- and medium-sized businesses that were in sound financial condition before the onset of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)…

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused the closure of Internal Revenue Service offices and service centers nationwide and the plummeting of new tax examinations. Although certain functions and ongoing cases within the IRS continued during this period, many did not, and new examinations of tax returns and enforced collection activity were put on hold under the People First Initiative. But the IRS is reopening, and taxpayers can and should expect that the agency…

Greenberg Traurig Global Tax Practice Co-Chair Barbara T. Kaplan comments on FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) penalty disputes, in an article published July 10 by Law360. Read the full article, “International Tax Cases to Watch in the 2nd Half of 2020,” (subscription required).…

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel announced in Issue Number IR-2020-130 that it will be making a time-limited settlement offer to certain taxpayers with pending docketed Tax Court cases involving such conservation easement transactions, offering finality to the affected taxpayers. The settlement offers do not address those cases that are currently pending in Examination or IRS Appeals. Read the full GT Alert, “IRS Offers Settlement to Syndicated Conservation Easement Investors with Cases Pending in …

On June 5, 2020, the IRS issued proposed Treasury Regulations under section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code). Background Section 4960 was added to the Code in 2017 as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Section 4960 generally provides that if certain tax-exempt organizations (an “applicable tax-exempt organization” or “ATEO”) pay remuneration to certain employees (“covered employees”) in excess of $1,000,000 or an excess parachute payment, the…

On June 5, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2020-39 providing relief for Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs) and their investors (QOF investors), and clarified previously issued relief to Qualified Opportunity Zone Businesses (QOZBs) affected by the president’s declarations of major disasters caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (which now apply in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories). This GT Alert summarizes the relief measures provided by the guidance. Continue …