On June 24, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) and the U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) issued final regulations (the “Final Regulations”) on the application of the “passthrough deduction” under Section 199A[1] to regulated investment companies (“RICs”) that receive dividends from real estate investment trusts (“REITs”). The Final Regulations broadly allow a “conduit” approach,...… Continue Reading

On May 26, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued final regulations (the “Final Regulations”) relaxing nonprofit donor disclosure requirements under section 6033 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) for many non-charitable tax-exempt organizations. Stated generally, section 6033 requires organizations exempt from taxation under section 501(a) (including section...… Continue Reading

On April 23, 2020, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) under Section 512(a)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”).  Section 512(a)(6) was enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”) and requires exempt organizations (including individual retirement accounts)[1] to...… Continue Reading

The UK government has opened a consultation on draft legislation concerning the taxation of coronavirus business support payments. HMRC want views on the technical effectiveness of the proposed legislation in ensuring that grants covered by the legislation are subject to tax. Such grants include the much-reported Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“CJRS”) (as reported by us...… Continue Reading

The UK’s First-tier tax tribunal (FTT) has just released an interesting decision considering whether or not expenses incurred by a parent company on advisers’ fees that related to a proposed disposal by a group subsidiary and were charged on to its subsidiary were deductible as expenses of management of the subsidiary under section 1219 of...… Continue Reading

There has been much discussion over the past year or so about the UK government’s proposal to make changes to the application of the off-payroll working (or IR35) tax rules to private sector end clients so as to shift certain employment status assessment and, depending on the circumstances, employment tax payment obligations from the worker’s...… Continue Reading

In light of COVID-19, and in response to requests from European trade associations, the European Commission has published its proposal to amend Directive 2011/16/EU which deals with various strands of administrative co-operation in the field of taxation. Significantly, the proposal includes an extension to the time limit for reporting information under the new rules on...… Continue Reading

On May 12, 2020, House Democrats introduced the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (the “HEROES Act”) (H.R. ___), a $3 trillion stimulus bill that would provide additional relief in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn.  The HEROES Act would eliminate the limitation on the deduction for state and local...… Continue Reading

On May 4, 2020, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2020-19, which temporarily allows a publicly-offered REIT or RIC to pay as much as 90% of a distribution in its own stock (rather than cash or other property) and still have the entire amount treated as a dividend for US federal income tax purposes. As a...… Continue Reading

We continue our blog series on COVID-19 implications on executive compensation matters with a post that addresses considerations relating to amending performance goals under equity and other incentive awards. Setting meaningful and effective performance goals often requires significant focus and analysis by compensation committees with the assistance of their advisors and management.  In light of...… Continue Reading