Insight and Information on Louisiana Law, Litigation, and Legal Culture
The IRS is starting to notify employers of their potential liability under Obamacare’s employer mandate for the 2015 calendar year. According to the IRS, the determinations are based on the employer’s 1094-C/1095-C informational returns filed for the 2015 tax year as well as individual tax information filed by the employer’s employees.
The IRS will notify…
Construction Work in Progress (“CWIP”) is generally recognized as property that is in the process of changing from one state to another, such as the conversion of personal property from inventory to asset or fixture by installation, assembly, or construction. See Valuation of Machinery and Equipment Construction in Progress (CIP), Pollack and Meier, Institute…
The statutory and regulatory deadline for appealing an adverse decision of the Louisiana Tax Commission (the “Commission”) is clearly thirty (30) days, but identifying the event that triggers commencement of the deadline has not always been easy. The applicable statute provides that the appeal deadline runs from the date the decision is “entered,” while the…
Non-profit organizations have the opportunity to finance the acquisition or renovation of property where they do their good works using qualified 501(c)(3) bonds, which often provide better financing terms and rates than those available from traditional lenders. The proceeds of qualified 501(c)(3) bonds may also be used by the non-profit organization for working capital or…
Federal tax law generally provides that tax-exempt bonds can only be issued to finance property for governmental or public use. If the property to be financed with bonds would be privately used, i.e., in a trade or business, the interest generated from the bonds will be included as income for federal income tax purposes. However,…
After considerable delay and much anticipation by the municipal finance community, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) recently approved a final rule defining municipal advisors for purposes of the Dodd-Frank Act (the “Act”). The SEC had previously noted that, in the wake of the last financial crisis, a number of municipalities suffered significant losses…
During the recent 2013 Regular Session, the Louisiana Legislature passed a sweeping tax amnesty bill (House Bill 456). The bill provides amnesty for virtually all Louisiana state taxes and will be available to taxpayers through a series of specified amnesty periods in 2013, 2014, and 2015, with benefits decreasing in each of the amnesty periods.…
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”) requires a dealer to disclose to its customers all material information about a proposed transaction that is known to the dealer as well as material information about the security that is available to the market from established industry sources. Since 2002, dealers have distinguished their disclosures based on different…
“Broker’s brokers” are intermediaries between selling dealers and bidding dealers of municipal securities. They provide secondary market liquidity in the municipal securities market, which helps ensure that retail investors receive fair and reasonable pricing of municipal securities. One way that broker’s brokers bring buyers and sellers together is through a “bid-wanted,” in which the broker’s…
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”) is seeking comments on a possible proposal to require underwriters and municipal advisors to disclose whether they have made or received certain payments in connection with new issues of municipal securities. The MSRB is concerned about conflicts of interest that impede the ability of municipal market professionals to act…
