The IRS has listed syndicated conservation easement deals as tax shelter transactions that participants must identify to the Service. It is likely to lead to the loss of claimed deductions for participants in the deals and separate taxes for those who don’t disclose their participation.
A federal District Court in Illinois has refused to dismiss a claim for breach of fiduciary duty brought by the owner of a high-speed car loaned to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The owner claims that the car has been damaged while in the custody of the museum.
A bank trustee cannot remove the claim by several charities for breach of fiduciary duty to federal court merely because they argue that the trust was intended to qualify as a charitable remainder trust under federal law, a federal District Court in California has held. It has remanded the case back to state court where it was originally filed.
A federal District Court in Brooklyn has frozen the assets of an individual defendant in a Fair Labor Standards Act claim by employees of a youth serving and community development nonprofit. Default judgment had been entered against the corporate defendants when their unpaid counsel said they were “an empty entity with no directors, employees, properties, interests, etc.” But the case had not been dismissed against the former executive director.
A nonprofit that provides residential care for child victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment is not subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act a federal District Court in Texas has held in dismissing a suit for overtime pay for direct care personnel.
The IRS may proceed to levy to collect more than $1.3 million in excess benefits taxes and nearly $600,000 in late payment penalties against a husband and wife couple that ran a 501(c)(3) pre-school, the Tax Court has ruled.
A divided Supreme Court in Maine has denied standing to an owner of real estate burdened by a conservation easement seeking to enforce the terms of the easement against an adjacent landowner to whom the owner sold the property burdened by the same easement. In a 5-2 decision, the Court has affirmed a trial court decision denying standing on the ground that it is not authorized under the state’s law modeled on the Uniform Conservation Easement Act.
Two volunteer firefighters who claimed that the remuneration and benefits they received from their volunteer firefighter services are sufficient to make the “employees” for purposes of Title VII harassment and retaliation claims have seen their claims survive a motion to dismiss in federal court.
