Overview
Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Banking Associations’ Challenge to IRS Reporting Regulation: Today, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Florida Bankers Association v. Department of Treasury. Last year, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit determined that the pre-enforcement challenge of two banking associations to an IRS regulation that imposes a “penalty” on US banks that fail to report interest paid to certain foreign account-holders was barred by the Anti-Injunction Act and the tax exception to the Declaratory Judgment Act. In its majority opinion, the DC Circuit focused on the fact that the penalty at issue is located in Chapter 68, Subchapter B of the Code and that the Code provides that penalties in subchapter 68B are treated as taxes for purposes of the Anti-Injunction Act. On petition, the two banking associations argued, in part, that the DC Circuit panel “failed to consider a long line of Circuit cases holding that the [Anti-Injunction Act] does not bar review of all cases contesting IRS regulatory schemes, including matters that the IRS denominates as a ‘tax.’”
Miscellaneous Guidance:
Revenue Ruling 2016-12 provides that interest rates on overpayments and underpayments of tax will remain the same for the calendar quarter beginning July 1. The rates will be: 4% for overpayments (3% in the case of a corporation); 4% for underpayments; 6% for large corporate underpayments; and 1.5% for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000.