Monthly Archives: June 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 2017 federal tax overhaul's mandatory repatriation tax on June 20, 2024, finding the measure applies to the earnings of foreign corporations with U.S. shareholders and therefore does not raise constitutional questions about taxing unrealized income. 

In a 7-2 ruling, the justices found that the repatriation provision operates in a way that does not require the high court to weigh whether the Constitution's Sixteenth Amendment prohibits Congress from taxing unrealized income. Specifically, the majority ruled that the measure, known as the mandatory repatriation tax under IRC §965, taxes income that was realized by foreign corporations with U.S. shareholders, and Congress has the authority to attribute a company's realized and undistributed income to shareholders for taxation.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote the majority's opinion, said the court 

"Need Not Resolve That Disagreement Over Realization"
To Decide This Case, Adding That Those Are
Potential Issues For Another Day."

Justice Kavanaugh, pointed out that the MRT taxes a shareholder on income that is clearly realized by a controlled foreign corporation, so the real question is “whether Congress may attribute an entity’s realized and undistributed income to the entity’s shareholders or partners, and then tax the shareholders or partners on their portions of that income.”

The majority found support for this proposition and dismissed petitioners’ attempts to distinguish  IRC §965 from the many taxes based on the undistributed income of partnerships, S-corporations, controlled foreign corporations, and the like.

In contrast with the majority’s narrow approach, four justices: Justice Barrett, in a concurrence joined by Justice Alito, and Justice Thomas, in a dissent joined by Justice Gorsuch all endorsed the existence of a constitutional realization requirement. 

These justices effectively invite future challenges to Congress’s authority to tax various types of income or gains under the Sixteenth Amendment.

Have an IRS Tax Problem?

 

Sources:

Law360

Kostelanetz

Read more at: Tax Times blog

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 6, 2024 affirmed a decision denying a tax refund to the estate of an owner of a building materials company that used a payout from his $3.5 million life insurance policy to purchase his shares in the business in Thomas A. Connelly v. U.S., case number 23-146,

In a unanimous opinion, the court affirmed a summary judgment decision by the Eighth Circuit, which ruled last year that the life insurance proceeds, used to fund a stock redemption by Crown C Supply following the death of its co-owner Michael Connelly, were an asset that increased Crown's value, inflating the value of Connelly's stock and driving up the tax liability of his estate.

The court rejected the estate's argument that the proceeds were a stock redemption that should be treated as a liability for Crown C Supply that reduced its value for purposes of calculating estate tax, similar to any debt.

Read more at: Tax Times blog

In Issue Number: IR-2024-155 the Internal Revenue Service announced the Document Upload Tool accepted its one millionth taxpayer submission.

Use of the Document Upload Tool, sometimes referred to as DUT, continues to grow. During the first six months of this fiscal year, more than 265,000 taxpayers used the tool, and the number continues to grow each month.

“The Document Upload Tool is a key part of our ambitious initiative to transform the IRS into a virtually paperless agency, and we continue to see increased use of this by taxpayers,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “This tool saves time for taxpayers and helps IRS employees process responses faster and more efficiently. 

A Growing Number Of Taxpayers Are Using Their Smart Phones Or Computers To Scan And Upload Their Responses To IRS Correspondence, Rather Than The More Time-Consuming Option Of Writing A Letter Or Mailing In Documents.”

The Document Upload Tool has shown steady growth over time as well. Since 2022, average monthly use of the DUT has more than doubled every year, from around 16,000 in 2022, to around 37,000 in 2023 and finally almost 84,000 so far in 2024. The document submissions cover a wide range of tax issues, including responding to IRS Notice CP2000, where the agency notifies taxpayers of potentially underreported income.

The IRS receives about 76 million paper tax returns and forms, as well as 125 million pieces of correspondence, notice responses and non-tax forms each year. In the past, the agency’s limited capability to accept these forms digitally or to digitize paper has added time-consuming steps that has created challenges for taxpayers, tax professionals and IRS employees. For decades, the only option available was to have taxpayers or their representatives mail or fax these documents to the tax agency.

The IRS Estimates That More Than 94% Of Individual Taxpayers Will Have The Option Of No Longer Having To
Send Mail To The IRS, Potentially Replacing Up To
125 Million Paper Documents Per Year, Easing
The Paperwork Burden For Both Them And The IRS.

To learn more about the Document Upload Tool, visit IRS.gov/DUT.

Read more at: Tax Times blog

On November 10, 2022 we posted Notice 2017-10 Conservation Easement Penalty Notice Struck Down By Tax Court where we discussed that the IRS violated administrative law in issuing a notice requiring the disclosure of potentially abusive conservation easement transactions under threat of penalty, the U.S. Tax Court ruled on November 9, 2022, striking down the guidance and rejecting penalties the agency sought to impose on four North Carolina partnerships.

Now according to Law360, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed on June 4, 2024 that an Internal Revenue Service notice imposing reporting requirements on potentially abusive conservation easements was invalid because the agency failed to solicit the public feedback required by administrative law.

A three-judge panel affirmed the ruling of an Alabama federal judge who last year sided with the land donation advisory firm Green Rock LLC in invalidating the notice on the grounds that it wasn't put through the Administrative Procedure Act's notice-and-comment procedures.

The panel rejected the government's argument that Internal Revenue Code Section 6011, which governs information tied to reportable tax shelter transactions, had authorized the agency to promulgate guidance without following the APA's public comment requirements.

The panel said no such express exemption exists in the law and that provisions that might provide an exemption "make no explicit reference to notice and comment, the Administrative Procedure Act, or procedural requirements at all."

Read more at: Tax Times blog