In January, the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari in the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair (discussed here). Wayfair, which will be argued before the Court on April 17, is a direct challenge to Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, in which the Supreme Court held that a vendor does not have to collect … Continue Reading
Last week’s NABL Tax and Securities Law Institute included a discussion featuring John Cross (Associate Tax Legislative Counsel – Treasury) and Vicky Tsilas (Chief Branch 5 — IRS General Counsel’s Office) of whether tax-exempt bonds can be issued to advance refund taxable bonds, including build America bonds (BABs) despite the prohibition of tax-exempt advance refundings … Continue Reading
With the flurry of news regarding how tax-exempt bonds were affected by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”), some of you may have missed what else was included in the TCJA. Here are six things a 501(c)(3) organization should know (other than that TCJA did not eliminate tax-exempt qualified 501(c)(3) bonds): Fewer individuals will … Continue Reading
A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about a hospital that had its Section 501(c)(3) status revoked by the IRS. In that case, the IRS found that the hospital had committed willful and egregious violations of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”). For example, the hospital was not conducting a community … Continue Reading
Over the last six weeks, my colleagues have posted numerous insightful posts about the various tax bills’ impact on tax-advantaged bonds (see here, here and here). For our readers who have been entirely consumed by those provisions of the bill, I thought it would be helpful to highlight some of the other provisions of the … Continue Reading
For those of you who were enjoying Thanksgiving last week and missed the Senate Finance Committee’s release of its proposed legislative text of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, see below for how succinctly tax-exempt advance refunding bonds can be removed from the Code: Yes, I’m cheating a little; there are a few more lines … Continue Reading
A few years ago, I wrote two blog posts (#1 and #2) regarding the likely penalties that a hospital qualifying for Section 501(c)(3) status (a “501(c)(3) hospital”) would incur if it failed to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) provisions set forth in Section 501(r) of the Internal Revenue Code of … Continue Reading
The title of this post is taken from an observation that a client once made when the strictures of the notice, hearing, and approval requirements set forth in Internal Revenue Code Section 147(f), which with limited exceptions apply to all issues of tax-exempt private activity bonds, worked to prevent a hoped-for use of proceeds of … Continue Reading
Are you struggling with what to get your hard-to-buy-for tax advisor for an upcoming birthday or holiday? Struggle no more, as I have the perfect gift idea. A PTIN. Why? Every tax return preparer needs one, and best of all, they are currently free.… Continue Reading
The National Association of Bond Lawyers submitted eight legislative proposals to Treasury on August 22 with the stated purpose of improving the efficiency of tax-advantaged financing of much-needed public infrastructure projects (here is a link to the proposals). The proposals would broaden the availability and simplify the existing forms of tax-exempt bonds as well as … Continue Reading
In contrast to the theme song, “Movin’ on Up”, from the 1970s sitcom The Jeffersons, sometimes “moving on down” is better in certain circumstances. For example, it is preferable when discussing the sequestration rate for direct pay bonds. Since sequestration began during the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, the sequestration rate (i.e., the portion … Continue Reading
The IRS recently released PLR 201726007, the first private letter ruling to interpret the revised management contract safe harbor in Rev. Proc. 2017-13. On one level, the PLR is quite straightforward – it concludes that a teaching agreement between a hospital and a school to provide clinical practice for pharmacy students does not result in … Continue Reading
Not unlike the American Broadcasting Company’s Wide World of Sports, our blog attempts to provide you the reader with blogs covering a wide variety of topics directly and indirectly related to tax-exempt bonds. In the category of topics indirectly related to tax-exempt bonds, this blog will address a recent Tax Court Memorandum (Fakiris, George v. … Continue Reading
This post is for those of you who like reading dictionaries (or about the making of dictionaries). Have you ever wondered why bonds are called bonds? To (try) to answer this question, let’s review what the Professor and the Madman have to say.… Continue Reading
Not quite a year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled Sometimes the Truth is Stranger than Fiction. There has been a recent development in the relevant case that I think is worthy of a short update. A very brief summary of what the relevant case involved is as follows. Two former Sprint executives (Mr. … Continue Reading
The IRS tax exempt bond group (“TEB”) continues to work on completing its 2016-‘17 Guidance Plan, as Bob Eidnier wrote last week. However, it might be some time before we see that guidance because of executive branch actions intended to reduce regulations and regulatory costs. The restrictions on new guidance are very broad, and appear … Continue Reading
A few weeks ago, President Trump announced that he would advocate for the repeal of the prohibition against certain religious organizations (i.e., those exempt from paying federal income taxes under Section 501(c)(3)) from engaging in political campaigning. His statement was made at the National Prayer Breakfast to a group of religious leaders. However, since the … Continue Reading
The IRS has over the past three years issued significant guidance on the safe harbors from private business use for management contracts, and we’ve been dutifully reporting on this guidance (here, here, here, and here). This guidance has generally been well received, but some issues remain. In addition to questions raised by Bob Eidnier in … Continue Reading
Most people agree that a “bond” is a financial instrument pursuant to which a creditor (holder of the bond) lends money to a borrower (the issuer of the bond) over a specified period of time in exchange for a periodic interest payment. However, although I occasionally see headlines about green bonds being issued, it was … Continue Reading
The year 2017 promises, and threatens, to be a potentially momentous one for public finance in the United States. The Trump Administration and the 115th Congress may put in place tax reforms and infrastructure programs that will have transformative consequences for the financing of public projects in all sectors and at all levels. These are … Continue Reading
The IRS has released Rev. Proc. 2017-13, which provides updated safe harbors from private business use for management contracts. Click here for a copy; we will have more on this soon.… Continue Reading
The Treasury Department issued final “issue price” regulations on December 9, 2016 (T.D. 9801) (the “Issue Price Regulations”). Below is a summary of the general and special rules for determining issue price under the Issue Price Regulations: General Rule. The general rule, retained from the existing regulations, provides that issue price is determined by actual … Continue Reading
My last blog post was about how, as a result of a change in the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), the IRS will be altering the manner in which it audits many partnerships (and limited liability companies that are taxed as partnerships under the Code). In a nutshell, for tax years beginning on or after January … Continue Reading
Like me, at some point in your childhood, you were probably told not to “look the gift horse in the mouth.” After reading this blog post, the same could be said to me. We have written in great detail (see here, here, and here) about the increased flexibility afforded issuers by the recently promulgated Final … Continue Reading
