On April 17th, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2020-25 to provide taxpayers guidance on implementing the changes to depreciation of qualified improvement property (QIP). As discussed in Waller’s prior blog post, the CARES Act provided a technical correction for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which precluded QIP from receiving 100% bonus depreciation under even though it was previously eligible for 50% bonus depreciation ...
There is a multi-million dollar market segment that petroleum and energy product companies may not have considered previously -- namely sales to the U.S. Government. The principal federal government agency for the purchase and management of energy products is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), a part of the Defense Logistics Agency, with headquarters at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia ...
Enron announced in court Friday, January 11, that it had selected UBS Warburg’s bid for its wholesale commodity trading business. Many details concerning the sale remain to be resolved through the bankruptcy court process. Importantly for Haynes and Boone’s energy clients, there are many other Enron assets remaining on the auction block ...
Since 2009, the Alberta government has reserved for itself the right to exempt electricity transmission projects from review by the Alberta Utilities Commission. Exempted projects have been referred to as Bill 50 Projects, Bill 50 being the name of the law when it was first proposed ...
On October 25, 2007 the Alberta Government announced a new royalty regime that will see a 20% increase in royalties for the development of the province’s non-renewable energy resources. Starting in 2009, oil and gas companies are expected to be paying roughly $1.4 billion more a year in royalties ...
The issue of coalbed methane (CBM) ownership, frequently disputed between coal rights holders and holders of mines and minerals rights other than coal, has been the subject of numerous recent applications to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB). The AEUB recently announced that it will hold a hearing relating to legal entitlement of CBM on split-title freehold mineral lands in Alberta ...
The Alberta Court of Appeal recently granted Atco Gas and Pipelines Ltd.’s (ATCO) application for leave to appeal AEUB Decisions 2005-63 and 2007-005 and Interim Order U2005-133. In those decisions the AEUB required ATCO to maintain certain natural gas reservoir storage assets (the “Carbon Facilities”) in rate base ...
The Alberta Court of Appeal has denied the Cold Lake First Nations’ (CLFN) application to appeal a decision by Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) that it did not have the jurisdiction to determine the adequacy of Crown consultation in respect of a bitumen recovery project within the CLFN’s treaty territory ...
The Alabama Department of Revenue (“Department”) recently issued a proposed regulation, Prop. Ala. Admin. Code 810-6-5-.05.02 which, if approved, will dramatically alter the obligation of sellers to collect and remit local sales and use tax imposed by Alabama cities and counties. By regulatory fiat, not supported by legislative changes, the Department seeks to reverse decades of tax history and positions ...
On March 11, 2014, Alabama formally created an independent tax tribunal and implemented additional procedural changes through the enactment of the Alabama Taxpayer Fairness Act (“Act”), which becomes effective October 1, 2014. The Alabama Senate approved legislation creating the Act on February 27, followed by House approval on March 4 and formal enactment by Governor Robert Bentley on March 11 ...
There has been considerable activity at the state and federal level over the past few months regarding when companies must “aggregate” emissions from operations to determine whether they are subject to the more stringent “major source” permitting requirements under the New Source Review (“NSR”) and Title V provisions of the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) ...
The acceleration in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies has been identified as a significant disruptor, influencing the design, operation, and location of data centres. AI models require large scale datasets and substantial computational power for training ...
Bob McIntosh, the Tenant Farming Commissioner, spoke at a conference on agricultural law at the beginning of June and gave a useful update of his activities and a range of issues surrounding agricultural tenancies. He had received 139 inquiries from agricultural landlords and tenants and their agents during the course of 2020 – a marked increase on the previous two years. The majority were from tenants (47 per cent) or their representatives (27 per cent) ...
Considering the Covid-19 pandemic, the Agriculture and Livestock Service (Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero, "SAG") issued the Exempt Resolution No. 3,439, dated May 19, 2020 to update the Program of Exports of Origin. (View update here.) This Resolution was published in the Official Gazette on June 10, 2020 ...
Agribusiness: STJ Recognizes the Co-Existence of Intellectual Property Rights from the IP and Plant Varieties Acts over Transgenic Soybeans On October 9, 2019, the Superior Court of Justice (“STJ”) unanimously denied Special Appeal No. 1.610.728/RS, establishing an understanding that entitles holders of GMO patents over soybeans to charge royalties for the use of their seed by farmers outside the scope of the Plant Varieties Act ...
The JIA or the Joint Investment Activity Agreement is a legal document on the basis of which thousands of tones of carbohydrates become privately owned in Ukraine everyday. Presently the JIA Agreement dominates the production of carbohydrates and this situation does not seem to be about to change in the near future. The article goes on to describe various JIA’s ...
by M. Ann Bradley, as published in IOGA of West Virginia newsletter, October 2010 There appears to be an increasing trend among certain regulatory agencies to issue policies or guidance when a change in some regulated activity is needed or desired, rather than undertaking formal rule-making procedures to adopt such a change ...
The Sixth Circuit recently ruled that an agricultural “multi-service finance company” had no claim to the proceeds of produce held in trust pursuant to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (“PACA”)[1] and could not circumvent the security interests of a senior lender ...
Washington’s Supreme Court disrupted the state’s agricultural industry on November 5, 2020, when it held that the agricultural overtime exemption at RCW 49.46.130(2)(g) violated the state’s constitution as applied to dairy workers. As a result, all dairy employers immediately had to start paying their workers overtime at a rate of 1.5 times their regular hourly rate. While not explicitly addressed, the Martinez-Cuevas v ...
In case you have been in a coma, major tax changes to the Internal Revenue Code were passed in December 2017. See Pub. L. 115-97 (115th Cong., 1st Sess.). Those changes make it much more attractive (from a tax perspective) to arrange one’s affairs like a business owner. Broadly speaking, the new tax law changed the landscape so that many business owners will now benefit from dramatically lower tax rates (e.g., the corporate rate has not been this low since 1939) ...
AFRICA TAX IN BRIEF KENYA: Chinese companies investigated by Revenue Authorities Local media reports of 30 May 2014 announce that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is investigating a number of Chinese companies suspected of evading tax. KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini said it is suspected that some Chinese-owned businesses are either under- or mis-declaring cargo ...
KENYA: Amnesty granted to landlordsIn terms of the new section 123C, introduced into the Income Tax Act by Finance Act 2015 (the “Act”), the Kenya Revenue Authority (“KRA”) has granted a tax amnesty to landlords with effect from 1st January 2016.The Act provides amnesty for persons who shall willingly declare their 2014 and 2015 rent, pay the implied principal tax and file returns (original or amended) between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016 ...
