On March 22, 2024, the Treasury Department published a proposed regulation relating to certain transactions involving Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (“CRATs”) investing in single premium immediate annuities (“SPIAs”). The rule would designate transactions seeking to exclude from income SPIA payments from a CRAT under Section 72(b)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”).

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled that the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is unconstitutional. Read more about the update here.

Since 2016 the Financial Crimes Network of the Treasury Department (“FinCEN”) has issued orders requiring title insurance companies to report certain non-financed residential real estate transactions to entities and trusts above a certain price threshold. These “Residential Real Estate Geographic Targeting Orders” or “GTOs” are limited to certain locations in the United States. 

The Louisiana Department of Revenue has drafted an emergency regulation regarding the Louisiana net capital gains deduction, Louisiana Administrative Code 61:I.1312. The emergency regulation will be published in the January 20, 2024 issue of the Louisiana Register, but the rule is effective for all transactions occurring on or after January 1, 2024.

FinCEN published a notice of proposed rulemaking on September 28, 2023 and the final regulations were just promulgated on November 30, 2023 that would extend the initial filing period to 90 days. The new rule, along with the CTA, becomes effective on January 1, 2024.

Unfortunately, there are always people out there looking for new ways to steal our personal information.  The latest scam?  Sending ominous warnings that personal information must be filed immediately with bogus or non-existent entities pursuant to the Corporate Transparency Act.

The Internal Revenue Service on November 27, 2023 published proposed regulations that would provide definitions under Section 401(k) regarding the long-term, part-time employee rules, recently enacted under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”) and SECURE Act 2.0 of 2022  (“SECURE 2.0”).

Under the Corporate Transparency Act companies are generally required to report detailed information about their beneficial owners, commencing January 1, 2024.  On November 7, 2023, The United States Treasury issued amendments to its regulations with respect to reporting for tiered entities where the lower tier entities have precisely the same owners. 

On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced the 2024 annual cost-of-living adjustments to the dollar limits applicable to certain employer-sponsored retirement and welfare plans. In addition, previously, the IRS released certain other health and welfare plan limits applicable for 2024 and the Social Security Administration separately released the taxable wage base amounts for 2024.

On Thursday, the IRS introduced certain criteria that, if satisfied, allow a small business to withdraw a prior claim for the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC). Certain businesses paying wages to employees during the COVID-19 pandemic and experiencing a “significant decline in gross receipts” were eligible to apply for the ERC.