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Customs Proposes To Substantially Transform The Substantial Transformation Test

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 08.08.08

By Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 73 Fed. Reg. 43385 (July 25, 2008), Customs & Border Enforcement has proposed substituting, for many purposes including rulings under the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), a "tariff shift" approach for determining country of origin in lieu of the longstanding and subjective "case-by-case" approach to determining the place where "substantial transformation" occurred. Under the proposed rule, contractors selling products under the contracts subject to the TAA would have to reevaluate their products under the rigid, pre-established formulaic tariff shift analysis to ensure products with significant non-designated country content qualify for sale to the federal government.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 10.15.25

Developers Adapt Timelines and Strategies for Wind and Solar Projects Following Recent IRS Guidance and Expected IRS Enforcement Activity

On August 15, 2025, the Treasury Department and IRS released updated guidance concerning Beginning of Construction requirements to qualify for clean energy tax credits. This new guidance is critical for developers to consider as they rush to qualify for the tax credits before they expire entirely. The much-anticipated guidance followed the July 7, 2025 Executive Order 14315, Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources (“July 7, 2025 Executive Order”), which signaled that the Trump Administration was planning to strictly enforce the termination of production and investment tax credits for solar and wind facilities that are set to expire under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB Act), covered in more detail here. The new guidance comes at a time when many in the industry are struggling to keep up with the myriad ways that the new administration is working to roll back wind and solar tax credits, leaving developers to piece through the recent guidance to determine how best to structure and invest in clean energy projects given the volatile position of the current administration vis-a-vis wind and solar energy....

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