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Pooja Shah Kothari

Pooja Shah Kothari is a member of the Tax Practice and Election and Political Law Groups. She has experience counseling clients on tax controversy matters at the Federal and state level. In addition, Pooja advises various tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations on a wide range of issues, such as federal tax exemption, unrelated business income tax, private benefit, inurement, and other tax rules, as well as entity formation and other corporate governance matters.

[This post was originally published as an Alert by Covington Financial Services.]

On September 29, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued the first of three final rules (the “Final Rule”) implementing the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”). This Final Rule, which largely adopts the provisions of FinCEN’s December 2021 Proposed Rule, addresses beneficial ownership reporting requirements. Subsequent rulemakings will address (i) access to and safeguards around information in the contemplated beneficial ownership information database and (ii) revisions to FinCEN’s existing customer due diligence (“CDD”) rule for financial institutions (which currently remains in place).Continue Reading FinCEN Releases Final Rule on Beneficial Ownership Disclosure Requirements: Seven Things To Know

[This post was originally published as an Alert by Covington Financial Services.]

On December 7, 2021, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) invited public comment on its proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) implementing the beneficial ownership disclosure requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA” or “Act”). Comments
Continue Reading FinCEN Releases Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Beneficial Ownership Disclosure Requirements: Seven Things To Know

With retroactive effect, EU Council Directive DAC 6 is now largely inapplicable in the United Kingdom.  DAC 6, which came into force on June 25, 2018, requires certain intermediaries (including those who provide legal, tax, or consultancy services) or taxpayers to disclose information related to cross-border tax planning.  Our prior coverage of DAC 6 may be found here.
Continue Reading Citing Brexit, UK Retroactively Curtails DAC 6 Reporting Requirements

On Friday, January 1, 2021, the Senate voted to override President Trump’s veto of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (“2021 NDAA”) by a vote of 81 -13.  The Senate’s override follows the House of Representatives’ override on December 28, 2020, and the 2021 NDAA is now law.  As we
Continue Reading Senate Overrides President Trump’s Veto of 2021 NDAA

On Monday, December 28, 2020, the House voted to override the President’s veto of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (“2021 NDAA”) by a vote of 322 – 87.  As we reported last week, the 2021 NDAA includes new FinCEN reporting requirements for U.S. and foreign entities to disclose
Continue Reading House Overrides President’s Veto of 2021 NDAA

Earlier this month, both houses of Congress passed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (“2021 NDAA”).  Included in Title LXIV of the 2021 NDAA (Title 64 for those of us rusty on Roman numerals), are new information reporting requirements intended to identify individual beneficial owners of certain business entities.  Subject to a number of exceptions, the bill requires certain U.S. and foreign entities to file annual reports with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) that will disclose information regarding the beneficial owners of reporting companies.  Overall, the reporting will identify those individuals exercising “control,” as the term is defined, over those entities required to report.  According to the legislation, over two million corporations, LLCs, and similar entities are formed under state law in the United States each year, and many “malign actors seek to conceal their ownership” of various entities intended to facilitate illegal activity.  Accordingly, the reporting mandated by the legislation is intended to help protect national security interests and interstate and foreign commerce, as well as counter the financing of terrorism.

The legislation passed both chambers by overwhelming majorities − 335-78 in the House and 84-13 in the Senate. Notwithstanding the significant Congressional support, President Trump has not yet signed the bill into law and has suggested that he may veto the bill (H.R. 6395).  The legislation will become law tomorrow (December 24, 2020) if the President does not veto the bill.  Even if the President vetoes the bill, it appears likely that Congress will override it by reconvening after Christmas and before the new year.  H.Res. 1271 (the rule providing for the consideration of the Senate amendment to H.R. 133 (the end-of-year package that includes COVID relief)) provided that if a veto message is laid before the House on the 2021 NDAA, the veto message and the bill shall be postponed until the legislative day of Monday, December 28, 2020.  Accordingly, if Trump vetoes the bill, the House will vote on its override on December 28.

UPDATE:  President Trump vetoed the bill on December 23, 2020.

UPDATE:  The House of Representatives voted to override President Trump’s veto on December 28, 2020.  Additional coverage is available here.  

UPDATE:  The Senate voted to override President Trump’s veto on January 1, 2021.  Additional coverage is available here.Continue Reading New Information Reporting on Beneficial Owners Included in 2021 NDAA

At the end of June, the European Union (“EU”) amended EU Council Directive 2011/16/EU and its cumulative amendments (referred to in the aggregate, as the Directive on Administrative Cooperation “DAC 6” or the “Directive”) to give EU Member States the option to defer imminent DAC 6 reporting deadlines by up to six months due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.  (Various sources, including the European Union, refer to the Directive as “DAC6” without a space between DAC and 6.  We use the alternative format in this post.)  The amendment to the Directive also includes language potentially allowing for an additional three-month extension depending upon how the pandemic unfolds, but cautions that further delays are unlikely.  Many EU Member States promptly announced a full six-month deferral, including Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK.  To date, Finland and Germany have announced that DAC 6 reporting will commence without any delay on August 31, 2020.

If U.S. multinationals with affiliates in the UK or EU countries have not taken steps to identify reportable tax planning and other arrangements caught up in the DAC 6 dragnet, they should do so immediately because the reporting requirements are onerous.

For readers unfamiliar with DAC 6, an overview of this new reporting regime follows.
Continue Reading DAC 6 Implementation Imminent in Finland and Germany Despite Delays in Other EU Countries and the UK Due to COVID-19

On March 13, 2020, the President issued a proclamation declaring a national emergency regarding the global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus (the “COVID-19 Emergency”).  Subsequently, FEMA approved all states and the District of Columbia for major disaster declarations to provide federal emergency assistance.  The Federal Government and state governments have also taken unprecedented preventative and proactive measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 by instituting stay-at-home orders and significantly curtailing travel.  These restrictions have caused concerns regarding the application of the U.S. tax residency rules to nonresidents who are unable to leave the United States due to the state of emergency.  In response, Treasury and the IRS issued Rev. Proc. 2020-20 to provide important relief under the substantial presence test for nonresidents unable to travel due to the COVID-19 Emergency.
Continue Reading IRS Provides Relief for Nonresidents Unable to Depart U.S. Due to Pandemic

On July 10, the IRS updated the Instructions for Form 8975 and Schedule A (Form 8975).  Form 8975 (Country-by-Country Report) is used by taxpayers that are the parent entity of a U.S. multinational enterprise (“U.S. MNE”) with annual revenue of $850 million or more.  Taxpayers must file Form 8975 to report information related to the taxpayer’s MNE’s constituent entities on a country-by-country basis, including (i) each entity’s tax jurisdiction; (ii) country of organization and main business activity; and (iii) financial and employee information for each tax jurisdiction in which the U.S. MNE does business (i.e., revenues, profits, income taxes paid, accumulated earnings, and tangible assets).
Continue Reading IRS Updates Country-by-Country Reporting Instructions

Last week, Kimberly Schoenbacher, the Acting Director of Field Operations for the LB&I Foreign Payments Practice (“FPP”), sent a message to taxpayers who may be noncompliant with Chapter 3 and FATCA withholding and reporting: the IRS is actively honing in on Form 1042 nonfilers, Form 1042 failures, and Forms 1042 and 1042-S that do not reconcile. Schoenbacher remarked at the International Tax Withholding and Information Reporting Conference in New York that the IRS has sent letters to thousands of taxpayers across the country regarding compliance failures related to Forms 1042 (Annual Withholding Tax Return for U.S. Source Income of Foreign Persons) and 1042-S (Foreign Person’s U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding). The letters were issued under the Form 1042/1042-S compliance campaign announced by LB&I in 2018. The campaign seeks to address withholding, deposit, and reporting noncompliance on the part of withholding agents making payments of U.S.-source income to foreign persons.
Continue Reading IRS Warns Withholding Agents to Consider FPP Correction Program to Avoid Penalties