TAX CONTROVERSY 360

Potential Refund Opportunity for Interest and Penalty Amounts Accrued During COVID-19 Federally Declared Disaster

by Shawn O’Brien and Samuel F. Hamer | Jun 12, 2025 | IRS Appeals, IRS Audits, Settlements, Tax Refunds, Trial Courts

Taxpayers who made payments to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that included underpayment interest and/or failure-to-file/pay penalties that accrued during all or part of the period between January 20, 2020, through July 10, 2023, should consider filing a refund claim with the IRS to potentially recover accrued interest and penalty amounts.

Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 7508A (as in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic), legislative history, regulations, and the US Tax Court’s opinion in Abdo v. Commissioner, 168 T.C. 148 (2024), provide the basis for potential refund claims. IRC § 7508A(d) provides for a mandatory postponement period of certain tax-related obligations, including the suspension of the accrual of underpayment interest for the duration of the COVID-19 incident period plus 60 days (January 20, 2020 – July 10, 2023). IRC § 7508A also appears to have paused the increase of failure-to-file/pay penalties, which are based on the time during which the taxpayer is not in compliance.

Taxpayers considering this refund opportunity should be aware that the statute of limitations to file a refund claim expires three years from the filing deadline of the original tax return or two years from the date on which payment was made – whichever is later (unless the statute of limitations period was otherwise extended). This refund opportunity may apply to underpayment interest and/or penalties paid with respect to federal income, estate, gift, employment, or excise taxes.

IRS Roundup May 15 – June 2, 2025

by Evan Walters, Samuel F. Hamer, Edward L. Froelich, Michael J. Scarduzio and Matthew J. Blaney | Jun 5, 2025 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform, Trial Courts

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for May 15, 2025 – June 2, 2025.

IRS GUIDANCE

May 15, 2025: The IRS issued Notice 2025-29, providing guidance on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, corresponding spot segment rates under Internal Revenue Code (Code) § 417(e)(3), and the 24-month average segment rates under Code § 430(h)(2). The notice also provides guidance on the interest rate for 30-year Treasury securities under Code § 417(e)(3)(A)(ii)(II) (for plan years in effect before 2008) and the 30-year Treasury weighted average rate under Code § 431(c)(6)(E)(ii)(I).

May 15, 2025: The IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2025-12, providing prescribed rates for federal income tax purposes for June 2025, including, but not limited to:

Short-, mid-, and long-term applicable federal rates for June 2025 for purposes of Code § 1274(d)
Short-, mid-, and long-term adjusted applicable federal rates for June 2025 for purposes of Code § 1288(b)
The adjusted federal long-term rate and the long-term tax-exempt rate, as described in Code § 382(f)
The federal rate for determining the present value of an annuity, an interest for life, or for a term of years, or a remainder or a reversionary interest for purposes of Code § 7520.

May 19, 2025: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2025-21. It includes Revenue Procedure 2025-19, which provides the 2026 inflation adjusted amounts for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) as determined under Code § 223, as well as the maximum amount that may be made newly available for excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements under Code § 54.9831-1(c)(3)(viii). Revenue Procedure 2025-19 is effective for HSAs for the 2026 calendar year and for excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements beginning in 2026.

May 22, 2025: The IRS issued a notice to US taxpayers living or working abroad, encouraging them to file their 2024 federal income tax returns by June 16, 2025.

June 2, 2025: The IRS issued Notice 2025-27, providing interim guidance on the application of the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT), as well as relief from certain additions to tax for a corporation’s underpayment of estimated tax under Code § 6655. Among other things, this notice also provides an optional simplified method for determining applicable corporation status and waives certain additions to tax under Code § 6655 concerning a corporation’s CAMT liability under Code § 55. The US Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the IRS also plan on issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, revising the CAMT proposed regulations in § 2.02(2) of this notice to include a method for determining applicable corporation status.

The IRS also released its weekly list of written determinations (e.g., Private Letter Rulings, Technical Advice Memorandums, and Chief Counsel Advice).

TAX CONTROVERSY DEVELOPMENTS

On May 22, 2025, the US Tax Court issued its opinion in Facebook Inc. v. Commissioner.

THE “BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL”

The “
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“Big, Beautiful Bill”: Federal Tax Bill Would Restrict the Employee Retention Credit

by Shawn O’Brien, Samuel F. Hamer and Michael J. Scarduzio | May 20, 2025 | Tax Reform

A sweeping federal tax bill that is currently under consideration in the US House of Representatives contains provisions that would significantly change the administration and enforcement of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).

The ERC was enacted in 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide financial relief to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by incentivizing employers to retain employees on payroll and rehire displaced workers. The ERC allowed employers that experienced significant disruptions due to government orders or a substantial decline in gross receipts to claim a tax credit equal to a percentage of qualified wages paid to employees. Millions of employers have filed refund claims seeking ERC for periods in 2020 and 2021. Since the enactment of the CARES Act, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued roughly $250 billion in ERC. More than 500,000 claims remained pending as of April 2025.

The federal tax bill, dubbed the “Big, Beautiful Bill” by US President Donald Trump, would prevent the IRS from allowing ERC that was claimed by a taxpayer on or before January 31, 2024. The deadline to claim ERC for taxable quarters in 2020 was April 15, 2024, and the deadline to claim ERC for taxable quarters in 2021 was April 15, 2025. The tax bill would thus appear to render ineligible all pending claims that were made after January 31, 2024, which are likely to be considerable in number. The bill is ambiguous as to whether taxpayers who have already been allowed ERC would need to repay those amounts to the extent their claims were made after January 31, 2024.

The tax bill would also extend the statute of limitations on the IRS’s ability to assess amounts attributable to ERC. Presently, the IRS has three years to assess amounts associated with ERC for all periods in 2020 and for Q1 and Q2 of 2021. The IRS has five years to assess amounts associated with ERC for Q3 and Q4 of 2021. The proposed legislation would extend both of these limitations periods to six years. This change would be significant, especially because the IRS is authorized to assess and collect erroneously allowed ERC by notice and demand.

Practice Point: Taxpayers with pending ERC claims should be alert to ongoing legislative developments – as this area continues to be a prominent focus of federal tax policy – and prepare now to defend ERC claims (even those filed after the potentially new deadline of January 31, 2024). Enactment of the changes proposed in the tax bill could dramatically restrict the amount of ERC currently eligible to be paid or credited and may empower the IRS to recapture a greater amount of claims already allowed. But considerable uncertainties remain as to the scope of the changes proposed in the bill. In the face of this uncertainty, taxpayers should consult experienced counsel who can assist them in preparing to defend ERC claims to which they are entitled.

IRS Roundup May 2 – May 13, 2025

by Evan Walters, Samuel F. Hamer, Edward L. Froelich, Michael J. Scarduzio and Matthew J. Blaney | May 19, 2025 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for May 2, 2025 – May 13, 2025.

IRS GUIDANCE

May 2, 2025: The IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2025-20, providing guidance on the domestic asset/liability percentages and domestic investment yields used by foreign life insurance companies and foreign property and liability insurance companies to compute their minimum effectively connected net investment income under Section 842(b) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023.

May 5, 2025: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2025-19, which includes Revenue Ruling 2025-10 and Revenue Procedure 2025-18.

Revenue Ruling 2025-10 provides various prescribed rates for federal income tax purposes for May 2025, including:

The short-, mid-, and long-term applicable federal rates for purposes of Code Section 1274(d).
The short-, mid-, and long-term adjusted applicable federal rates for purposes of Code Section 1288(b).
The adjusted federal long-term rate and the long-term tax-exempt rate from Code Section 382(f).
The appropriate percentages for determining the low-income housing credit from Code Section 42(b)(1) (but only for buildings placed in service during May 2025).
The federal rate for determining the present value of an annuity, an interest for life or for a term of years, or a remainder or a reversionary interest for purposes of Code Section 752.

Revenue Procedure 2025-18 provides issuers of qualified mortgage bonds (defined in Code Section 143(a)) and mortgage credit certificates (defined in Code Section 25(c)) with guidance related to nationwide purchase prices for residences, as well as the average area purchase price for residences located in statistical areas in each US state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

May 6, 2025: The IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2025-21, modifying Section 12 of Revenue Procedure 2024-32.

Executive Order 14219, issued through the Department of Government Efficiency’s deregulatory initiative, directed agencies to initiate a review process for identification and removal of certain regulations and guidance. Pursuant to Executive Order 14219, the US Department of the Treasury and the IRS identified Section 12 of Revenue Procedure 2024-32 as a regulation needing modification.

Revenue Procedure 2024-32 specifies the procedure by which the sponsor of a defined benefit plan, which is subject to the funding requirements of Code Section 430, may request approval from the IRS for the use of plan-specific substitute mortality tables. Section 12.02 of Revenue Procedure 2024-32 specifies that if a plan sponsor wishes to use plan-specific mortality tables, it must develop and request approval for the use of new plan-specific mortality tables for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2026. Revenue Procedure 2025-21 provides immediate relief for some of those plan sponsors by narrowing the category of plan sponsors that must request approval of new plan-specific substitute mortality tables.

May 12, 2025: The IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2025-11, determining the interest rates [...]

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IRS Roundup April 1 – April 17, 2025

by Evan Walters, Samuel F. Hamer, Edward L. Froelich, Michael J. Scarduzio and Matthew J. Blaney | May 1, 2025 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for April 1, 2025 – April 17, 2025.

April 4, 2025: The IRS issued Notice 2025-19, inviting the public to submit recommendations for items to include in the IRS’s 2025-2026 Priority Guidance Plan. The IRS uses the Priority Guidance Plan to identify and prioritize the tax issues that should be addressed via regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices, and other published administrative guidance. A list of factors the IRS considers when selecting projects for inclusion is outlined in the notice.

April 9, 2025: The US Department of the Treasury (Treasury), along with the IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, eliminated 15 rules and guidance materials, in addition to two rules already rescinded by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The stated purpose of these actions was to remove rules that the government says are now obsolete and hamper the growth of US small businesses. These actions were some of the many that the Treasury says it will take over the next several months to eliminate unnecessary IRS rules and to “unleash the regulated banking sector.”

April 10, 2025: US President Donald Trump signed legislation blocking an IRS reporting rule that would have required decentralized digital asset platforms to report statistics showing customers’ gross sales on their platforms.

April 11, 2025: The IRS issued Notice 2025-24, providing penalty relief under Section 6707A(a) of the Internal Revenue Code to participants in micro-captive reportable transactions that fail to timely file (i.e., by April 14, 2025) certain disclosure statements as required under Section 6011; Treas. Reg. §§ 1.6011-10(h)(2) or 1.6011-11(h)(2); Section 6111; and Treas. Reg. §§ 1.6011-10(h)(3) or 1.6011-11(h)(3)). Participants will only qualify for relief if they file the required disclosure statement with the Office of Tax Shelter Analysis by July 31, 2025.

April 14, 2025: The IRS issued Notice 2025-22, providing for the elimination of extraneous and unnecessary Internal Revenue Bulletin guidance. This notice was prompted by the issuance of Executive Order 14219 on February 19, 2025. The purpose of Executive Order 14219 is to focus the IRS’s limited enforcement resources on regulations “squarely authorized by constitutional Federal statutes” while eliminating “overbearing and burdensome” regulations and “ending Federal overreach.” In Notice 2025-22, the IRS eliminated several current sources of guidance and stated that it anticipates revoking or obsoleting hundreds of similar guidance documents in the near future.

April 15, 2025: The IRS issued Notice 2025-21, providing updates on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, spot segment rates used under § 417(e)(3), and the 24-month average segment rates under § 430(h)(2) of the Code. This notice also provides guidance on the interest rates for 30-year Treasury securities and the 30-year Treasury weighted average for plan years beginning before 2008.

April 17, 2025: The IRS issued Notice 2025-23, announcing its intent to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing [...]

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