Project Finance NewsWire

August 2005

IN THIS ISSUE

Will PUHCA Repeal Hasten Utility Consolidations?

The energy bill that President Bush signed on August 8 repeals a 1935 statute — called the “Public Utility Holding Company Act” — that makes it hard to form multistate electric and gas utilities i...

IRS Addresses Interconnection Payments

The Internal Revenue released new guidelines in July that should let some independent power companies get back “tax grossups” that utilities required them to pay in connection with “network upgrade ...

FERC Rebuffs Wind Developers

The tensions between federal and state energy regulation were dramatically highlighted by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order in July that its transmission pricing policies require wind d...

Real Estate Issues in US Wind Deals

Wind developers learn quickly that expertise in wind technologies, electricity transmission and tax credits is not enough — they must also be savvy real estate developers...

Environmental Update

Utilities and environmental groups wasted little time in challenging the “clean air interstate rule” that requires 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia to reduce nitrogen oxide ...


IN OTHER NEWS

Synfuel

Synfuel plant owners won a round in the IRS national office in June.

The Oregon

The Oregon legislature voted in July to require utilities to reduce rates if they end up not paying the full taxes that were included in rates...

Holland

Holland granted partial relief in July to US companies that have made offshore investments through Dutch holding companies using a so-called CV-BV structure.

India

India and Singapore have a new protocol to their tax treaty.

The California

The California Franchise Tax Board hired an outside tax counsel in June to train the state audit staff on what to look for in audits of companies that may be diverting income to offshore holding c...

Pennsylvania

A Pennsylvania appeals court held in late May that municipalities in the state have the right to collect property taxes from companies that merely hold rights to subsurface minerals...

Insurance

Insurance is not always easy to recognize...

Kansas

Kansas cannot assess interstate and intrastate gas pipelines differently for property tax purposes, the state supreme court said in June ...

Environmental Cleanup

Environmental cleanup costs where a manufacturer pollutes his own land and groundwater must be offset against revenue from sales of his products...

A Partnership

A partnership had no cancellation of debt income, but it took the IRS a year and a half to come to that conclusion.

Circular 230

Circular 230 has spurred debate about what warnings must be included in tax discussions in offering circulars...

Minor memos

The owners of the TransAlaska Pipeline System largely won a dispute with three Alaska municipalities over what value should be assigned to the pipeline for property tax purposes.