Alston & Bird Tax Blog

audit

Look Before You PEEP – Delaware OUP Rejects Bid to Address Issues with Program and Agreement

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Where there’s a carrot, there’s usually a stick. Our Unclaimed Property Team analyzes Delaware’s new permanent expedited examination program and finds potential issues that could be more than a holder may have bargained for. What will be found in a Request to Expedite Completion of Unclaimed Property Examination?Delaware’s Office of Unclaimed Property fails to clarify or offer guidanceThe deadline for filing a request is September 30 Read the full advisory here. [...]Read more

A New Theory of Code Definitions

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“Manifestly incompatible?”

A new IRS Chief Counsel Advice features a disturbing interpretation of Section 7701’s definitions. Our Federal Tax Group parses out what taxpayers should beware of—or what could possibly be used to their benefit.

Applying the abuse of entity regulation
Discriminating against taxpayers singled out
Statutory construction that doesn’t otherwise provide

Read the full advisory here. [...]Read more

Unclaimed Property Challenges in the Health Care Industry

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States across the country are undertaking unclaimed property audit campaigns. These audits are targeting large national health care providers and insurance companies. Learn from Unclaimed Property partners Kendall Houghton and Matt Hedstrom why these audits raise HIPAA and unclaimed property concerns for the health care sector.

Click here to read the article.

  [...]Read more

Plains All American Case Dismissed – Federal Court Determines Holder Must Develop Factual Record Before Challenging Kelmar Unclaimed Property Audit

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On August 16, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware granted Kelmar’s and Delaware’s motions to dismiss in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., v. Cook, et al.[1]  The court determined that the Plaintiff (1) lacked standing to sue Kelmar, (2) had not demonstrated ripeness of declaratory relief against Delaware for any of its claims, except equal protection, and (3) failed to state a cause of action regarding its equal protection claim.

Background

In 2014, Delaware, through its third-party auditor, Kelmar, initiated an unclaimed property audit of Plains All American [...]Read more

Delaware Governor Signs Unclaimed Property Overhaul Into Law

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On July 22, 2015, Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed into law a significant piece of unclaimed property reform legislation, S.B. 141.  Alston & Bird issued an advisory on June 23 analyzing the changes brought about by the bill.  Our advisory is available here: www.alston.com/advisories/serious-property-reform.

To summarize, S.B. 141 will do the following:

Make permanent the Secretary of State's voluntary disclosure program.
Require the Department of Finance to provide holders with the opportunity to enter into the Secretary of State's VDA program before being subjected to [...]Read more