Category Archives: Uncategorized

Selling Contracts

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If you think about it, franchises aren’t just fast food restaurants and auto parts stores within a specified area. Our Federal Tax Group reveals how nearly any contract to buy or sell goods or services can lead to favorable capital-gains treatment. Defining “franchise” under Section 1253 Examples of franchise contracts How limiting is the “specified area” requirement? Read the full advisory here. [...]Read more

Altera Redux – The Ninth Circuit Once Again Holds in Favor of the IRS

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Last week, our International Tax Group examines the Ninth Circuit repeating itself in reversing a unanimous Tax Court holding on the validity of the Treasury's regulations under Section 482. We examine the reconstituted  panel's significant decisions, which in many ways follow the first panel's conclusions. Altera v. Commissioner, Parts 1, 2, and now, 3 What is the meaning of “commensurate with income”? What does this case say about previous standards under Chevron? Read the full advisory here. [...]Read more

TCJA Proposed Regulations – Weekly Client Update | 163(j) Interest Deductibility

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Over the next few weeks, we will be hosting weekly 30 minute webinars where our attorneys will walk through key elements of the new TCJA regulations packages, addressing corporate and international issues and state tax matters.

The first session occurs January 15 at 11am when Jack Cummings and Scott Harty walk through key elements of 163(j) interest deductibility.

Click here to sign up and learn more.

California Explains its Response to Wayfair

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On October 24, 2018, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration ("CDTFA") held a stakeholder's meeting to discuss the impact of South Dakota v. Wayfair on use tax collection in California. Among those at the meeting from the CDTFA were Nicolas Maduros (Director), Trista Gonzalez (Chief of Tax Policy), and Robert Tucker (Assistant Chief Counsel). For the majority of the meeting the CDTFA fielded questions from attendees. During the course of the meeting, the CDTFA explained its planned response to Wayfair. California Rev. & Tax. Code Section 6203(c) states that California's sales [...]Read more

First Round of Proposed GILTI Regulations Avoids the Hard(er) Stuff

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The IRS’s opening salvo of proposed regulations under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s global intangible low-taxed income is as complex as you would think. Our International Tax Group cuts through the clutter to address the key takeaways: Computation of GILTI inclusion Anti-abuse rules GILTI guidance still to come Read the full advisory here.  [...]Read more

New York Looks to Further Restrict Gift Card Practices

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In December, we wrote about a new gift card law in New York that took effect on Christmas day (http://www.alston.com/advisories/ny-gift-card-legislation/), which was enacted by Senate Bill S. 4771-E. Under that now-effective law: Gift card issuers are prohibited from charging a service fee before the twenty-fifth month of dormancy, and any service fees that are applied after this time must be waived and put back on the card if the card is used within three years of the issue date. No gift card may have an expiration date of earlier than five years from the date the card was issued or the [...]Read more

Another Wynne for Taxpayers: Unconstitutional Limitations on Credits for Taxes Paid to Other States

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Clark Calhoun explores the implications of a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in an article published in IPT Insider. (See p. 10 of the linked document.) In Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Maryland’s income tax credit scheme unconstitutional, holding that the state’s failure to provide a full credit for the state and local taxes paid to other states was internally inconsistent and, therefore, violated the dormant Commerce Clause. Calhoun's article focuses on a similar tax credit issue, the constitutionality of which seems highly suspect [...]Read more

When Taxpayers Should Not Bear the Burden of Proof

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The impact of the burden of proof on state tax appeals cannot be overstated.  Taxpayers often lose tax appeals on the basis that they failed to satisfy the seemingly elusive burden of proof. Apart from limited instances in the arena of alternative apportionment, taxpayers bear the burden of proof in nearly every state tax appeal.  As the reasoning goes, taxpayers should bear the burden of proof because it is the taxpayers that possess the necessary information and, thus, are in the best position to establish the proper amount of state tax liability.  But should this always be the case? In [...]Read more

The Treasury Department and the IRS Surprise Taxpayers with Proposed § 385 Debt-Equity Regulations

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For decades, the determination of whether debt issued between related parties should properly be characterized as equity has provided grounds for frequent disputes between taxpayers and the Treasury Department and the IRS (together, “the government”). Congress attempted to address this issue through the enactment of IRC § 385(a) (as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1969), which authorizes the Treasury Department to prescribe regulations as necessary or appropriate to determine whether an interest in a corporation should be treated as debt or equity. However, the government had not done so – [...]Read more