Washington, D.C., partner Stuart Bassin and associate John Lehrer were invited to address the November 19, 2009, Tax Audits and Litigation meeting of the District of Columbia Bar Association, Tax Section.
Bassin and Lehrer spoke on "Developments Involving the Economic Substance Doctrine: Recent Cases and Proposed Legislation." Lehrer moderated the panel on which Bassin was a panelist. Former Baker Hostetler partner Adam Gropper, currently Joint Taxation Legislative Counsel for the United States Congress, was also a member of the panel.
The panel discussed recent decisions, such as Southgate and Castle Harbor, applying the economic substance rule and other judicial doctrines. The panelists summarized the rulings and compared these opinions to prior case law applying judicial doctrines such as the economic substance rule. In addition, they discussed current congressional proposals to codify the economic substance doctrine and the relationship of the proposals to prior law and these recent decisions.