Amid the world’s turmoil, we can take comfort in the persistent march of long-foretold events. Keeping to their pre-pandemic promises (at least partially), the Federal Reserve and U.K. regulators[1] of LIBOR have reaffirmed their plans to cease publication of the one-week and two-month LIBORs by the end of 2021. Issuers, holders, and counterparties are slowly and … Continue Reading
As described in our previous post, NABL hasn’t been binge watching Tiger King and binge eating like the rest of us during this time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, on March 25, 2020, NABL asked the IRS to adopt a proposed notice that would address two municipal bond concerns caused by the pandemic: … Continue Reading
The IRS has issued proposed regulations that allow issuers to replace LIBOR rates associated with their bonds and swaps without triggering a reissuance of the bonds or a deemed termination of the swaps. The replacement rate must be a “qualified rate,” which includes the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). A rate isn’t a “qualified rate” … Continue Reading
The March 1 deadline for submitting comments on the proposed reissuance regulations to the IRS is coming up fast. We make a general comment here – the existing guidance contains helpful ancillary rules that aren’t directly implicated by the core reissuance rules. The IRS should not exclude these helpful ancillary rules from the final regulations. … Continue Reading
Johnny Hutchinson could tell you, from memory, that the Defenestration of Prague occurred on May 23, 1618, and it precipitated the Thirty Years’ War, which ended on May 15, 1648 upon the ratification of the first of a series of peace treaties that comprised the Peace of Westphalia. In 1988, 370 years after the Defenestration … Continue Reading
Public finance tax lawyers have been acutely aware of the direct effects of the 2017 tax legislation, especially the elimination of tax-exempt advance refundings, but some of the indirect effects have begun to appear only recently. One of those is the triggering of bank rate adjustments resulting from the drop in the corporate tax rate. … Continue Reading
Last week I attended the NABL Tax and Securities Law Institute, which always provides valuable insights from representatives of Treasury and the IRS. Vicky Tsilas, Chief, Branch 5, Financial Institutions and Products, was a panelist for Tax Hot Topics and gave a very interesting status report on the 2016-2017 Guidance Plan (first reported on here … Continue Reading
Despite an increase in the federal funds rate by the Federal Open Market Committee in December, municipal bond interest rates throughout 2016 were (and still are) extremely low when compared to historic rates. As a result, the volume of municipal bond issues reached an all-time high in 2016. As discussed below, the Treasury Department released … Continue Reading
Suppose you, or a friend, issued build America bonds or another form of direct payment subsidy bonds in 2009 or 2010, as permitted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to do your bit to stimulate aggregate demand during the depths of the Great Recession. You, or your friend, as applicable, did not, however, include … Continue Reading
After coverage here, here, here, and here, we return yet again with even more thoughts on the BAB reissuance memo. We explore to whom the BAB reissuance memo matters. Riddle me this, Batman: To whom does this memo matter?… Continue Reading
As Naomi Jagoda reported in The Bond Buyer yesterday ($), the National Association of Bond Lawyers has asked the IRS to revoke Advice Memorandum 2014-009, in which the IRS concludes that if you defease BABs with tax-exempt bonds, the BABs are treated as retired and reissued and are therefore no longer eligible for subsidy payments because the … Continue Reading
Naomi Jagoda has an article in The Bond Buyer ($) today with more commentary on Advice Memorandum 2014-009, where the IRS says that BABs don’t get the benefit of the rule that the defeasance of a “tax-exempt bond” doesn’t cause the bond to be reissued. Note that others in the community are raising the same point that was raised in yesterday’s … Continue Reading
Earlier this year, we wrote about issuers that are weary of losing interest subsidies to sequestration and that have paid off their direct pay bonds with tax-exempt bonds. We noted two main questions where the issuer doesn’t pay off the direct pay bonds immediately, but instead puts the refunding bond proceeds into a defeasance escrow … Continue Reading
As we told Naomi Jagoda of The Bond Buyer back in July ($), we are seeing many issuers that have become jaded with their BABs and want to refund them with tax-exempt bonds. Assuming that these issuers engaged a bond counsel firm that was wise enough – nay, truly heroic enough – to have foreseen … Continue Reading
