Avocado Roundup is a quick morning review of top tax, legal, and climate news stories. It’s written by humans.
- A Florida consulting firm has helped thousands of taxpayers file for billions of dollars in tax refunds under a 2020 law aimed at rewarding companies that kept employees during the pandemic. The firm could end up making a billion dollars in fees from the work. (WSJ)
- Atlanta-based Squire Patton Boggs said it plans to open a 16th European office in Amsterdam this fall focused on European corporate/private equity work, for which it has recruited a three-person team from Dutch firm Van Doorne and a partner from UK firm Taylor Wessing. (Squire Patton Boggs)
- The Tanzanian subsidiary of French energy and chemicals group Total lost a six-year legal battle with the country’s revenue authority over a tax assessment of about $175,000 on jet fuel the company imported in 2015. Total unsuccessfully argued the fuel was used by international airlines and therefore not subject to the country’s railway development levy. (The Citizen)
- A 2 billion euro ($2.16 billion) tax cut for households promised by French President Emmanuel Macron for 2027 could possibly come earlier, in 2025, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire suggested Tuesday. (Le Figaro)
- The Internal Revenue Service won’t process a Florida woman’s tax return. They think she’s dead. (WFLA.com)
- A phony tax lawyer in France who ripped off more than 400 people for a combined total of several million euros was sentenced to three years in prison, but the sentence is suspended. (RTL)
- Greenberg Traurig said it obtained a license to open an office in the United Arab Emirates, for which it recruited a two-partner real estate and hospitality team in Dubai from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. (GTLaw.com)
- Kramer Levin added former White & Case transactional tax attorney Marcus Schmidbauer as partner in Paris. He arrives recently from advisory firm D’Ornano + Co., joined by two associates, boosting Kramer’s M&A and private equity practices. (KramerLevin.com)
- Fox Rothschild hired tax and wealth planning attorney Denise Nordheimer as partner in Wilmington, Delaware. (FoxRothschild.com)
- Venable LLP hired former Silicon Valley Bank private bank litigation head Adrienne Gurley, who was earlier an SEC enforcement attorney and federal prosecutor, as partner in its investigations and white collar defense practice in Los Angeles. (Venable.com)
- California-based services and consulting firm Berkeley Research Group launched a European antitrust and competition practice based in Brussels and Paris. (ThinkBRG)
