Litigation and Administrative Controversies
The Firm represents more major insurance companies in federal tax litigation and administrative controversies than any other law firm. This includes all segments of the insurance industry, including life, health, and property and casualty insurance companies. The Firm handles major tax litigation matters for its insurance industry clients in all federal courts having tax jurisdiction. The Firm is well-known for its representation of clients throughout the U.S. at all phases of tax audits before the Examination and Appeals functions of the IRS. The Firm also represents clients in alternative dispute resolution matters and tax indemnity disputes. The attorneys serve as expert witnesses on insurance tax matters in state and federal proceedings.
The Firm's involvement in many tax controversy matters, includes the following topics:
- Computation of tax reserves
- COLI and other insurance products
- Financial products, hedges, straddles
- IRAs, TSAs and other tax-qualified retirement arrangements
- Welfare and other employee benefit plans and deferred compensation arrangements
- Excise tax
- Reinsurance
- Dividends received deduction
- Treatment of intangibles
- Deferred acquisition costs
- Research and development credit
- Valuation
- Administrative summons
- Tax-exempt status
- Consolidated returns
- Foreign tax credit
The Firm often is engaged to represent a coalition or a trade association in test case litigation.
- Retained by the American Council of Life Insurers to prepare a Tax Court amicus brief in Trans City - the first major case testing the scope and application of I.R.C. § 845 to reinsurance transactions.
- Retained jointly by Western National Mutual Insurance Company and the American Insurance Association to litigate a significant industry–wide issue concerning the tax treatment by property–casualty insurance companies of discounted unpaid losses.
- Filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court in Atlantic Mutual, which dealt with the validity of the IRS's regulations on the treatment of discounted unpaid loss reserves.
- Filed an amicus brief in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in United Parcel Service of America, Inc. on behalf of the Alliance of American Insurers that helped persuade the Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. Tax Court's holding that the establishment of an off-shore reinsurance company was without economic substance.
Read more about our practice
- Reinsurance and Corporate Transactions
- Insurance and Financial Products
- Representation of State Insurance Departments
- Other Practice Areas