For many years retailers and businesses have been paying California state sales and use taxes on transfers of prewritten software. California tax authorities have claimed that taxes were payable on such transfers, but in the recent case of Nortel Networks Inc. v. State Board of Equalization, the CA Court of Appeals ruled that a license [...]

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On Friday, June 3, 2011, Mayor Ed Lee addressed San Francisco’s current policy on taxing gains on stock options by signing into legislation an ordinance granting a partial tax exclusion on stock options for private companies in San Francisco. San Francisco is the only jurisdiction in the state to impose a payroll tax on stock options. [...]

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On June 2, the IRS updated the Q&A’s describing the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative.  The initiative is discussed in more detail in our March 3rd blog post, but generally it is a program that allows taxpayers with undisclosed foreign income or assets to come into compliance for a penalty that is below that which [...]

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Last month, in court in the Eastern District of California, the IRS asked for permission to serve a “John Doe” summons on the California Board of Equalization to require California authorities to release California property tax records relating to transfers of property for little or no consideration.  If enforced, the summons would require the state [...]

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In a recent Delaware Supreme Court case, Versata v. Selectica, (10/4/2010 Del. Sup. Ct.) 5 A.3d 586, the court approved Selectica’s use of a net operating loss (NOL) preservation plan. The plan essentially allowed Selectica to issue diluting shares to existing shareholders whenever a new shareholder attempted to obtain more than 4.99% of the shares [...]

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On February 8th, 2011, the IRS announced the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative for taxpayers with undisclosed income in foreign bank accounts to come forward and get current with their taxes. By coming forward voluntarily, taxpayers can generally avoid criminal prosecution and pay a reduced penalty. To participate, taxpayers must submit several documents and amended [...]

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On February 14, 2011, the Obama administration released its proposal for the FY 2012 budget. Several tax policy issues pursued by the Obama administration in previous years were again included in the budget proposal, including the taxation of “carried interests” as ordinary income.
The movement to tax “carried interests” as ordinary income made significant headway last [...]

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On February 8th, 2011, the IRS announced the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (the “2011 OVDI”) for taxpayers with undisclosed income in foreign bank accounts to come forward and get current with their taxes.  Approximately 15,000 taxpayers participated in a similar program offered in 2009, where in exchange for a reduced penalty structure and the [...]

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Prior to 2010 tax years, Section 6039 of the Internal Revenue Code, required that employers provide information statements to their employees when such employees either (i) exercised grants of incentive stock options (ISOs) or (ii) purchased shares under an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP).
For years 2010 and later, an updated set of rules and regulations [...]

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As discussed in our blog for Nov. 23, 2010, the government enacted the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (“SBJA 2010”) in late September of 2010. Among other things, SBJA 2010 provides for an exclusion of 100% of the gain realized on the sale of certain qualified small business stock (“QSBS”) held for at least [...]

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