Limited US Tax Guidance for Adding ARRC and ISDA Fallbacks

On Friday, October 9, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service released Revenue Procedure 2020-44 (the “Revenue Procedure”), providing retroactive but limited relief for amending specific types of legacy contracts to add fallback mechanics for the London Interbank Offer Rate or other Interbank Offer Rates. The fallback granted relief by the Revenue Procedure must rather strictly follow select model contract language recommended by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee or the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. This Legal Update provides an overview of the Revenue Procedure.