MoFo Tax Talk, Volume 4, Issue 4

Editor's Note

As we were waiting for the Treasury Department's ("Treasury") Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ("FATCA") regulations to spoil our holidays, Treasury officials gave us a gift of sorts and said the regulations would be out sometime "early" this year. Hopefully, they will be published prior to FATCA's next effective date of March 18. Even without the FATCA regulations, Q4 2011 had a number of important tax developments affecting the capital markets. Treasury released the final version of the specified foreign financial asset reporting form, along with temporary and proposed regulations. The Tenth Circuit affirmed the Tax Court's ruling in Anschutz Co. v. Commissioner on whether a prepaid variable forward plus a stock loan is a sale for federal income tax purposes. The Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") issued various pieces of private guidance addressing the tax consequences of a number of transactions including modifications of debt