Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Skadden, Arps Requests Guidance on Taxation of Retirement Payments to Providers of Pro Bono Legal Services

As reported in Tax Notes Today (subscription required), Skadden, Arps has written the Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) in Treasury and the IRS Chief Counsel to request inclusion in the 2015-2016 Priority Guidance Plan of published guidance addressing the tax treatment of retirement payments to retired law firm partners who provide pro bono legal services to the poor and to charitable organizations that serve them.  The following paragraph of the firm's letter explains the legal issue:

[T]he question is whether pro bono services provided by retired partners constitute "services with respect to [a] trade or business carried on by [the law firm] partnership," such that the retirement payments would no longer qualify for the exception to the definition of "net earnings from self-employment." Section 1402(a)(10(A) provides that if a retirement plan meets certain requirements, any payments made pursuant to that plan are excluded from a partner's net earnings from self-employment so long as, among other things, the partner "rendered no services with respect to any trade or business carried on by such partnership . . . during the taxable year of such partnership . . . in which such amounts were received." The issue raised by the Chief Judge's pro bono initiative focusing on retired partners is whether a retired partner who is currently receiving retirement payments that otherwise qualify for the Section 1402(a)(10(A) exclusion could be treated as "rendering services with respect to any trade or business" of the law firm partnership by taking on a pro bono legal representation that is connected to the law firm, whether it involves supervision of other law firm lawyers and staff, use of law firm resources (office space, computer and other equipment), and/or coverage under the law firm's malpractice insurance.

The letter argues that “uncertainty surrounding the tax treatment of the retirement payments presents a significant impediment to the retired partner's provision of pro bono services, thereby serving to discourage important pro bono work by retired law firm partners who would not otherwise be subject to self-employment tax on their retirement payments, but for their pro bono assistance to needy underserved individuals and communities.”  

Electronic Citation: 2015 TNT 121-18

 

JRB

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2015/06/skadden-arps-requests-guidance-on-taxation-of-retirement-payments-to-providers-of-pro-bono-legal-ser.html

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