Summer is winding down and fall is approaching. Here are a few of the significant tax cases from the last few weeks.

Tax Court

  • YA Global Investments, LP v. Commissioner, 151 TC No. 2 (Aug. 8, 2018): The Tax Court held that withholding tax liability on effectively connected income of foreign partners is a partnership liability that constitutes a partnership item. The Tax Court has jurisdiction over the issue in a partnership-level proceeding.
  • Illinois Tool Works Inc. & Subsidiaries v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2018-121 (Aug. 6, 2018): The Tax Court held that intercompany loans constituted bona fide debt for US federal income tax purposes.
  • Becnel v. Commissioner, TC Memo. 2018-120 (Aug. 2, 2018): The Tax Court holds that a property developer’s yacht related expenses are non-deductible entertainment facility expenses under Code section 274.
  • Kane v. Commissioner, TC Memo. 2018-122 (Aug. 6, 2018): Code section 6672 trust fund recovery penalties were imposed on a third-party vendor that performed bookkeeping services and held signature authority over certain accounts for a taxpayer delinquent on employment taxes. The Tax Court found that a collection officer did not abuse their discretion in denying a collection alternative during the collection due process proceeding, particularly when the taxpayer failed to submit an offer in compromise and already disputed the merits of the penalty during the appeals process.

Continue Reading Recent Developments in US Federal Income Tax Litigation

Presented below is our summary of significant IRS guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of August 13 – 17, 2018:

August 13, 2018: The IRS and Treasury withdrew and re-proposed certain portions of proposed regulations regarding the new partnership audit regime. These proposed regulations make changes to four different regulation packages under the new rules.

August 15, 2018: Revenue Procedure 2018-42 extends the deadline for submitting on-cycle applications for opinion letters or pre-approved defined contribution plans.

August 17, 2018: The IRS published Revenue Ruling 2018-23, announcing the applicable federal rates for September 2018.

August 17, 2018: The IRS released their weekly list of written determinations (e.g., Private Letter Rulings, Technical Advice Memorandum and Chief Counsel Advice).

Special thanks to Kevin Hall in our DC office for this week’s roundup.

Presented below is our summary of significant IRS guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of August 6 – 10, 2018:

August 6, 2018: The IRS and Treasury issued final regulations, which provide guidance regarding the new partnership audit rules. The regulations describe the procedure for designating a partnership representative and the partnership representative’s authority. They also address the time, form and manner of an election to apply the new audit regime to prior partnership tax years.

August 6, 2018: The IRS published Revenue Procedure 2018-40, which describes procedures for small businesses to obtain automatic consent for changing an accounting method to a new method established under the TCJA (P.L. 115-97).

August 7, 2018: The IRS published an updated subject matter directory, available here.

August 8, 2018: The IRS published proposed regulations under new section 199A, which provides a 20 percent deduction for qualifying income earned by certain non-corporate taxpayers during tax years beginning after December 31, 2018. The proposed regulations address which taxpayers are eligible for the deduction and provide guidance regarding the computation of the deduction.

August 8, 2018: The IRS released Notice 2018-64, which includes a proposed revenue procedure that would provide guidance regarding calculating W-2 wages for purposes of the section 199A deduction.

August 10, 2018: The IRS released their weekly list of written determinations (e.g., Private Letter Rulings, Technical Advice Memorandum and Chief Counsel Advice).

Special thanks to Kevin Hall in our DC office for this week’s roundup.

On July 27, 2018, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Alta Wind v. United States, reversed and remanded what had been a resounding victory for renewable energy. The US Court of Federal Claims had ruled that the plaintiff was entitled to claim a Section 1603 cash grant on the total amount paid for wind energy assets, including the value of certain power purchase agreements (PPAs).

We have reported on the Alta Wind case several times in the past two years:

Government Appeal of Alta Wind Supports Decision to File Suit Now

Court Awards $206 Million to Alta Wind Projects in Section 1603 Grant Litigation; Smaller Award to Biomass Facility

Court Awards $206 Million to Alta Wind Projects in Section 1603 Grant Litigation; Smaller Award to Biomass Facility

Act Now To Preserve Your Section 1603 Grant

SOL and the 1603 Cash Grant – File Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

In reversing the trial court, the appellate court failed to answer the substantive question of whether a PPA that is part of the sale of a renewable energy facility is creditable for purposes of the Section 1603 cash grant.

Trial Court Decision

The Court of Federal Claims awarded the plaintiff damages of more than $206 million with respect to the cash grant under Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Section 1603 Grant). The court held that the government had underpaid the plaintiff its Section 1603 Grants arising from the development and purchase of large wind facilities when it refused to include the value of certain PPAs in the plaintiffs’ eligible basis for the cash grants. The trial court rejected the government’s argument that the plaintiffs’ basis was limited solely to development and construction costs. Instead, the court agreed with the plaintiffs that the arm’s-length purchase price of the projects prior to their placed-in-service date informed the projects’ creditable value. The court also determined that the PPAs specific to the wind facilities should not be treated as ineligible intangible property for purposes of the Section 1603 Grant. This meant that any value associated with the PPAs would be creditable for purposes of the Section 1603 Grant.

Federal Circuit Reverses and Remands 

The government appealed its loss to the Federal Circuit. In its opinion, the Federal Circuit reversed the trial court’s decision, and remanded the case back to the trial court with instructions. The Federal Circuit held that the purchase of the wind facilities should be properly treated as “applicable asset acquisitions” for purposes of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 1060, and the purchase prices must be allocated using the so-called “residual method.” The residual method requires a taxpayer to allocate the purchase price among seven categories. The purpose of the allocation is to discern what amount of a purchase price should be ascribed to each category of assets, which may have significance for other parts of the IRC. For example, if the purchase price includes depreciable plant equipment and non-depreciable property (e.g., cash and marketable securities), the residual method asks the taxpayer to allocate the total purchase price between the property classes.

The Federal Circuit remanded the case back to the Claims Court to determine the proper allocation of the purchase prices of the wind facilities.

Why Is This Case Important?  

If you are in the renewable energy industry, this decision is likely very important. Indeed, there are numerous taxpayers who did not receive the full amount of their Section 1603 Grant based upon the government’s reduction of the claim for the value of a PPA. This case will have precedential effect on those taxpayers’ claims. Moreover, the decision will affect how the industry prices deals for renewable facilities. These transactions have historically involved substantial financial modeling based upon cash flows.

The Federal Circuit Left the Primary Issue Unanswered

The Federal Circuit left the primary issue in the case, whether the PPA is creditable for purposes of the Section 1603 Grant, to the trial court to decide on remand. Accordingly, if the trial court determines that the PPAs cannot be divorced from the wind farm facilities assets, they will be correctly allocated to “Class V” in IRC section 1060, and will be credit able for purposes of the Section 1603 Grant. Implicitly, this is what the trial court had already decided, and the result would obtain the same economic result for the plaintiff as its original ruling. We will continue to follow this matter to see whether the trial court follows the prevailing thinking on this issue and of a decade of legal support.

Wrapping Up July – and Looking Forward to August

Top July Posts You Might Have Missed

IRS Releases Practice Unit on Examining Transaction Costs

Recent Developments in US Federal Income Tax Litigation

LB&I Announces Six New Campaigns

Upcoming Tax Controversy Activities in August

Our lawyers will present on key tax topics during the month of August. We hope to see you.

August 7, 2018: Thomas Jones is presenting on Captive Insurance Tax Issues at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association’s annual conference in South Burlington, Vermont.

August 23, 2018: Laura Gavioli is presenting “Recent IRS OVDP Developments: How Will It Impact the 2018 Landscape” for a Knowledge Group webcast.

On March 28, 2017, the US Tax Court (Tax Court) issued its opinion in Good Fortune Shipping SA v. Commissioner, 148 T.C. No. 10, upholding the validity of Treas. Reg. § 1.883-4. The taxpayer had challenged the validity of the regulation’s provision that stock in the form of “bearer shares” cannot be counted for purposes of determining the more-than-50-percent ownership test under Internal Revenue Code (Code) section 883(c)(1), but the Tax Court held that the regulation was valid under the two-step analysis of Chevron USA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837 (1984), and applied it in ruling for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We previously discussed the Tax Court’s opinion here. The taxpayer appealed the Tax Court’s decision to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (DC Circuit).

Continue Reading DC Circuit Reverses Tax Court and Holds Section 883 Regulations Invalid under Chevron Test

We previously posted on the Order by the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, et al. v. Internal Revenue Service, Dkt. No. 1:16-CV-944-LY (W.D. Tex. Sept. 29, 2017). To recap, the district court held that Treas. Reg. § 1.7874-8T was unlawfully issued because it violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by not providing affected parties with notice and an opportunity to comment on the temporary regulations. In addition to the APA analysis, the court’s Order was noteworthy for its conclusion that the plaintiff’s claims were not barred by the Anti-Injunction Act because the regulations did not involve assessment or collection of tax.

As we updated our readers, the government appealed the Order to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. However, the case was stayed while the regulation underwent notice and comment. And, on July 11, 2018, Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations addressing inversion standards. On July 26, 2018, the government moved to dismiss its appeal with prejudice as moot. The Fifth Circuit has granted the government’s motion, thus ending the dispute.

Because the case was dismissed by the Fifth Circuit, the district court’s Order remains on the books. But what value does that Order have? As a technical matter, district court opinions are not precedential. However, lack of precedential value does not render the Order meaningless. If another court addressing a similar issue were to find the district court’s analysis to be well-reasoned and thorough, it might consider it persuasive on deciding the issue. One would certainly expect that a subsequent court would, at a minimum, have to address the Order if faced with a similar issue. For more reading on the precedential and persuasive value of opinions and order, see here.

Practice Point: The Order in the Chamber of Commerce case may be helpful to taxpayers desiring to challenge regulations on APA grounds and provides authority for a pre-enforcement challenge. It remains to be seen whether other courts will find the Order persuasive.

Presented below is a roundup of significant tax cases from the last few weeks.      

Tax Court

  • Balocco v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2018-108 (July 9, 2018): Judge Kerrigan found that personal aircraft maintenance expenses incurred by a “property flipper” were: (1) not ordinary or necessary expenses; and (2) were not properly substantiated by the taxpayer.
  • Archer v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2018-111 (July 16, 2018): Judge Cohen reaffirmed the requirement for taxpayers to substantiate their expenses pursuant to Code section 6001. Archer engaged in unrelated marketing and construction operations, but failed to adequately document his transactions, offering only oral testimony and handwritten notes as substantiation, which the Court deemed insufficient.

Federal District Court:

  • United States v. Durham, No. 4:18-MC-00137 JAR (E.D. Mo. July 9, 2018): Judge Ross ordered the taxpayer to answer certain questions, finding that a prior affidavit submitted by the taxpayer to the IRS effectively waived the taxpayer’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The waiver was subject matter specific, so the taxpayer’s Fifth Amendment rights persisted for questions unrelated to the affidavit.
  • United States v. Arora, 1:17-cv-00584-SWS-MLC, 2018 BL 251732 (D.N.M. July 16, 2018): The IRS relied on the deliberative process privilege to withhold two memoranda discussing the imposition of penalties from the affected taxpayer. The court concluded that the penalty determination was an application of agency policy and the agency’s deliberative process in formulating the decision are protected.
  • Whitsitt v. Cato IRS Agent, et al., No. 2:17-cv-1818-EFB PS (E.D. Cal. July 19, 2018): A “Tax Avoider” could not enjoin the IRS from the collection of taxes due to a lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Anti-Injunction Act for claims that would restrain the collection of taxes.
  • Coggin v. United States, No. 1:16-CV-106 (M.D.N.C. July 17, 2018): A spouse was barred from filing untimely separate returns to reverse timely filed joint returns even though the spouse did not sign the original joint returns. The court found that the undisputed facts indicate the spouse intended to file joint returns, and is therefore barred from revoking an otherwise valid joint return to pay a lesser amount of tax on separate returns filed years later.