The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has disallowed capital loss deductions from a transaction that lacked economic substance (Scott A. Blum; Audrey R. Blum v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, No. 12-9005, 18 December 2013).
The case involved a US taxpayer who entered into a tax shelter transaction called the OPIS (Offshore Portfolio Investment Strategy) transaction. The OPIS transaction was a basis-shifting scheme that was designed to create artificial losses by allowing taxpayers to…