Tax Talk: Volume 9, Issue 3

Editor's Note

Halloween is just around the corner, and if the government doesn't issue the section 385 regulations soon, the references to those controversial regs and "trick or treat" in law firm client alerts will be overwhelming (and not that funny). Tax Talk is making no predictions on the regulations, but we do give the reader an update on various related developments in Tax Talk 9.03. We also cover the latest development in commodity‑oriented regulated investment companies ("RICs"). For over a decade, the small investor has sought a way to invest in commodities through open or closed end mutual funds. Unfortunately, commodities were not much of an investment class in 1942 when the predecessor of subchapter M was enacted by Congress, and RICs, therefore, were basically restricted to investments in securities. In the early 2000s, investment advisors bridged the gap using commodity swaps. They would get opinions from their erstwhile '40 Act legal advisers that