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Tax Shelter Disclosure And Penalties: New Requirements, New Exposures, Mary A. Mcnulty, Robert D. Probasco
Tax Shelter Disclosure And Penalties: New Requirements, New Exposures, Mary A. Mcnulty, Robert D. Probasco
Robert Probasco
One of the primary weapons in the battle against tax shelters has been mandatory disclosure to the IRS. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 built on this approach by clarifying and making consistent the various disclosure requirements and strengthening penalties for non-disclosure. To uncover abusive transactions, Congress drew the boundaries of disclosure so broadly that even legitimate tax planning transactions are covered. To understand the dangers in the new rules, one must look at the broad range of transactions covered, the participants covered, and the harsh penalties for nondisclosure.
- Transactions Covered. The disclosure requirements apply to six categories …
Tax Court Find Stars Transaction Lacks Economic Substance, Robert D. Probasco, Lee S. Meyercord
Tax Court Find Stars Transaction Lacks Economic Substance, Robert D. Probasco, Lee S. Meyercord
Robert Probasco
In Bank of New York Mellon Corp. v. Commissioner, the Tax Court found that a structured trust advantaged repackaged securities (“STARS”) transaction entered into by BNY Mellon lacked economic substance, and disallowed foreign tax credits of $199 million as well as transactional expenses of $8 million. BNY Mellon is the first test case to emerge from the IRS’s attempts to disallow tax benefits to several financial institutions that participated in the STARS transaction.
The STARS transaction is one of a number of different transactions that the IRS refers to as “foreign tax credit generators.” These transactions generally rely on inconsistent …
Much Uncertainty About Uncertain Tax Positions, Robert D. Probasco
Much Uncertainty About Uncertain Tax Positions, Robert D. Probasco
Robert Probasco
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced in January 2010 a new initiative to require certain businesses to report “uncertain tax positions” on a new schedule filed with their annual tax returns. Draft schedules and instructions issued in April 2010 clarified some of the mechanical aspects of the new requirement but left many open issues and questions. The IRS proposal built on requirements by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in FASB Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes (“FIN 48”). The standard requires companies, in their financial statements, to reserve some of the benefits from any position taken …
Navigating Tefra Partnership Audits In Multi-Tiered Entity Structures, Mary A. Mcnulty, Robert D. Probasco, Lee S. Meyercord
Navigating Tefra Partnership Audits In Multi-Tiered Entity Structures, Mary A. Mcnulty, Robert D. Probasco, Lee S. Meyercord
Robert Probasco
The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) established a unified procedure for determining the tax treatment of partnership items at the partnership level rather than the partner level. Although these rules addressed a serious and real administrative problem in the assessment of partnership level deficiencies, they also created a complex process with many new problems and potential traps. One particularly unique set of challenges arises in the context of multi-tiered entities.
Multi-tiered entities are partnerships that have a partnership or other pass-through entity as a partner. The pass-through partner is commonly referred to as a “tier,” and …