On April 23, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion in County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, et al., where the Court held that, in limited circumstances, a party discharging pollutants into groundwater that ultimately end up in navigable waters will need a permit under the Clean Water Act.
Continue Reading The Supreme Court Looks for a Middle Ground to Determine When Clean Water Act Permit is Required for Discharges to Groundwater

This week, in a split 7-2 opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court held that Montana state law claims brought by private landowners against Atlantic Richfield Company (“ARCO”) for alleged impacts from the Anaconda Smelter Superfund site are not preempted by CERCLA and are not precluded by ARCO’s settlement of EPA’s CERCLA claims; however, any restoration damages awarded to the landowners must be spent on actual restoration of the property, as required by Montana state law, and restoration must be conducted in a manner either approved by the EPA or consistent with the EPA’s already-approved remedial action plan.Continue Reading ARCO v. Christian: Supreme Court Allows State Law Claims for Restoration Damages in Excess of EPA Superfund Cleanup, but EPA Must Approve Any Additional Remedial Action

In addition to the SBA’s Payment Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), on April 9, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced that it was going to provide up to $2.3 trillion in loans to support the economy through various programs, including the Main Street Lending Program (“MSLP”).  The MSLP will support credit flow to small and mid-sized businesses by providing support to businesses that were in good financial standing prior to the COVID-19 crisis.  This is a new loan program authorized by the CARES Act.  We will continue to update this summary as more information becomes available.

Continue Reading Main Street Lending Programs

In a previous post to the Liskow website, we advised clients and friends that the CARES Act, P.L. 116-136, enacted modifications to the rules for the use of net operating losses (“NOLs”) and corporate alternative minimum tax carryforward credits (“AMT Carryforward Credits”) for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2021.  See, J. Bradford and J. Birdsong, CARES Act Makes Significant Changes to Four Key Business Tax Provisions Enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[1]  The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) now has published guidance on how refunds attributable to the newly-permitted 5-year carryback of NOLs in section 172 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) and the accelerated use of AMT Carryforward Credits in section 53(e) of the Code can be obtained.  The IRS also has published guidance allowing business entities classified as partnerships for federal income tax purposes to file amended partnership income tax returns, including Form 1065 and Schedule K-1, to help individual and corporate taxpayers who are partners in those partnerships take advantage of changes in the federal income tax law enacted in the CARES Act.
Continue Reading New IRS Guidance on Obtaining Refunds for Net Operating Loss Carrybacks, Corporate AMT Carryforward Credits and Filing Amended Returns for Partnerships

Background

The Coronavirus Pandemic has wreaked havoc on small and mid-sized businesses (“SMBs”) throughout Texas and the rest of our country.  Many SMBs have had to close their doors due to mandatory stay-at-home orders and other social distancing orders and requirements.  The CARES Act and other recent legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump contain several programs designed to assist these businesses in their efforts to make it through the hardships of the next several months.  But what about the longer-term capital needs for SMBs as the pandemic subsides and these businesses emerge from the mandatory stay-at-home and other orders and begin to move forward again?Continue Reading Emerging on the Other Side of the Coronavirus Pandemic: Raising Structured Capital for Small and Mid-Size Businesses

Updated August 31, 2020

On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, which provides for various economic stimulus measures, including a new loan program regulated by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) called the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). You can read more about the PPP and the other stimulus programs here.

On June 5, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 (the Flexibility Act), which amends the CARES Act to make certain changes to PPP loans and to provide more flexibility to borrowers. For an overview of the changes made by the Flexibility Act, click here. This blog post has been updated to incorporate the changes made by the Flexibility Act.

On July 4, 2020, President Trump signed into law a bill that extends the application period for PPP loans from June 30, 2020, to August 8, 2020, which provides eligible borrowers additional time to contact participating lenders to facilitate a PPP application.

Continue Reading Applying for a Loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

On Friday, March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the CARES Act, which contains many provisions designed to mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Liskow & Lewis attorneys John T. Bradford and Jeffrey P. Birdsong wrote about four of those provisions which affected the implementation of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) here. The following blog post walks through another round of changes to the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) contained in the CARES Act.Continue Reading Liskow & Lewis CARES Act Tax Analysis – Part II

Day-to-day life has been dramatically impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and many businesses have been forced to close or limit their service to slow the spread of COVID-19. In response, Congress has passed several pieces of legislation to assist individuals and businesses affected by the virus.

Continue Reading COVID-19 Federal Legislative Response