alliantNational Blog

On December 2nd, 2013 the Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari in Overstock.com, Inc. v. New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, et al. The case involved the assessment of State sales tax against online retailers. The case, brought by Amazon.com and other online retailers, challenged New York State’s law imposing sales…

On November 12th, 2013 the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a decision in Trowbridge v. Internal Revenue Service (Civil Action No. 4:13-cv-1850, Nov. 12, 2013). The case involved the notice requirement for I.R.S. summonses to third parties under § 7609. Typically, the IRS must provide notice to the subject…

Representative Julia Brownley (D-CA) introduced the Innovation, Research, and Manufacturing Act (H.R. 3640) on December 2, 2013. The proposed bill would increase the I.R.C. § 41 credit for increasing research activity (commonly known as the Research and Development or R&D tax credit) by fifty percent. The bill would also extend the credit permanently, and permit…

On October 23rd, 2013 the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”, “Service”) issued a memorandum providing guidance to collections employees regarding the proper criteria and procedures for rejecting offers in compromise under the “not in the best interest of the government” and “public policy” standards. Regarding rejections under the “not in the best interest of the government”…

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”), in a September 16, 2013 report, found that a significant portion of taxpayer claims for general business credits contained suspect claims. In a review of 2011 tax year claim filings, the TIGTA found suspect claims comprised approximately 16% of the value of all credit claims nationwide. As…

The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Private Letter Ruling 105886-13 on July 15th, 2013 regarding the treatment of a subsidiary’s post-merger net positive income, net capital gain and Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) 38(c) contributions for the purpose of computing a Separate Return Limitation Year (“SRLY”) subgroup’s consolidated net income, consolidated net capital gain and consolidated…

On October 24th, 2013, in Advo, Inc. & Subsidiaries, Petitioner v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent (“Advo”), 141 T.C. No. 9, the United States Tax Court held that the taxpayer did not have the “benefits and burdens of ownership” of the direct advertising materials, and was therefore not entitled to the IRC section 199 Domestic…

On Monday, November 4th, IRS Commission of the Large Business and International Division (“LB&I”), Heather Maloy, issued a memorandum (LB&I-04-1113-009) clarifying updates to the Information Document Request enforcement process. In June of 2013, the Service announced (in LB&I-04-0613-004) new protocols for issuing and enforcing Information Document Requests (“IDRs”), the most common tool used by IRS…