Elliot Pisem and David E. Kahen
Transactions that do not have any non-tax business purpose or economic substance apart from the creation of tax benefits may be disregarded, and additional tax determined by the Commissioner on the basis of the underlying economic substance of the transactions, under the “economic substance” doctrine as developed by the courts and as codified in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 7701(o).
Acqis Technology v. Commissioner (TC Memo 2024-21), discussed below, confirms the continued vitality of the doctrine in the context of an apparent scheme to evade tax with respect to proceeds attributable to the settlement of patent infringement claims.
