George Hani, speaking on a panel at a District of Columbia Bar Taxation Section luncheon, discussed recent decisions from high-profile tax shelter cases and discussed what transactional elements qualified, or should have qualified, under the two prongs of the economic substance doctrine: objective profit potential and subjective business purpose. Hani questioned whether having legitimate, reasonable data that could show profit potential could have saved the taxpayer in Pritired, a tax shelter case involving a purported foreign tax credit generator.

Hani also commented that the Tax Court in Historic Boardwalk applied the economic substance doctrine in the context of federal historic rehabilitation credits, implying that the doctrine is "relevant" (the standard under the new codified doctrine) even for transactions involving such Congressionally provided tax benefits.