Current Enforcement & 2025–2026 Developments
Where the enforcement spotlight actually points.
7.1 · DOJ Tax Division Injunction Complaint (March 27, 2025)
On March 27, 2025, the DOJ Tax Division sued to enjoin promoters of monetized installment sales — targeting S. Crow Collateral Corporation and its principal — over an alleged ~$840 million scheme. As CPA Robert Keebler observed, "This filing does not affect the plain vanilla installment sale transaction allowed under IRC Section 453."
Confirms the enforcement spotlight is on monetization/loan-back structures, not the genuine-deferral SIS. The cleaner the SIS's separation from any loan or monetization, the further it sits from this enforcement line.
7.2 · Monetized Installment Sale Regulations — Still Proposed
As of June 2026, REG-109348-22 remains proposed, not finalized. The comment period closed in October 2023, the public hearing was cancelled, and the project has appeared and then receded on the IRS Priority Guidance Plans.
Until finalized, no new disclosure regime applies. The principal risk to abusive structures remains the economic-substance doctrine (§7701(o)), step-transaction, and substance-over-form — none of which threaten a bona fide SIS.
7.3 · One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) — Signed July 4, 2025
The OBBBA did not change the mechanics of §453, §453A, or §453B. It preserved the long-term capital-gains rate structure (0%/15%/20%, plus the 3.8% NIIT under §1411 with unchanged $200k/$250k MAGI thresholds), and it made the Opportunity Zone program permanent with a new "OZ 2.0" framework beginning January 1, 2027 (rolling five-year deferral; 10% basis step-up at five years, 30% for rural funds).
The SIS's statutory foundation is unchanged by OBBBA. The rate environment (a top effective 23.8% federal LTCG+NIIT rate) continues to make rate-smoothing across years — the SIS's core benefit — economically meaningful. The revamped Opportunity Zone rules are a competing deferral strategy worth comparing, but they do not affect §453 itself.