When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determines that a particular type of transaction or industry practice raises tax compliance challenges, it sometimes designates such items for special audit scrutiny. These designations are referred to as “audit campaigns.” On June 10, 2021, the IRS designated the issue as to whether credit funds purchasing debt instruments in secondary markets should be treated as engaged in lending businesses as an audit campaign. This Legal Update, prepared by Mark Leeds of the New York office of Mayer Brown, explores this new designation in more detail.
