In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Elizabeth Smith, counsel in the tax controversy group, is joined by David Saltzman, a partner in the tax group, to discuss the recent Tax Court memorandum decision, Illinois Tool Works Inc. & Subsidiaries v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. This case involved a strategy designed to permit a U.S.

On September 25, 2018, the IRS announced that it is considering guidance on the treatment of spinoffs involving business ventures engaged in research and development for future profit. The announcement is of special interest to life sciences and other technology ventures actively engaged in R&D for new pharmaceutical, medical device or other technology-based products. In

As previously reported by Ropes & Gray, on July 24, 2018, the Ninth Circuit reversed the Tax Court’s prior decision in the Altera case and upheld the IRS regulation requiring the allocation of stock-based compensation in qualified cost-sharing agreements. The decision was particularly notable since it ended in a 2-1 vote, in which Judge Reinhardt,

In an unexpected 2-1 decision, Judge Reinhardt, who passed away in March of this past year, cast the Ninth Circuit’s deciding vote to reverse the Tax Court’s prior ruling in Altera. In 2015, the Tax Court invalidated Treasury Regulation 1.482-7A(d)(2)’s requirement that related parties allocate stock-based compensation costs when entering into cost-sharing agreements to

Move over, South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. During the long debate over the U.S. Supreme Court’s physical presence standard for state sales taxes, a quiet revolution in state corporate income taxes has been taking place — the shift to market-based sourcing for services income. By the early 2000s, only a smattering of states had