When It Sounds Too Good To Be True, It Usually Is
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.14.06
Many of us were surprised in 2000 when the Court of Federal Claims found that state income taxes paid by the individual owner of a Subchapter S corporation were allowable state income costs of the corporation on contracts performed by the corporation. It comes as no surprise that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reversed in Information Systems & Networks Corp. v. U.S. (Feb. 6, 2006), holding that, when state law follows federal law and imposes income taxes on the owners of Subchapter S corporations but not on the corporations themselves, the corporations are exempt from taxation and the tax paid by the individual owner is not an allowable cost of the corporation.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
