Taxes

Today’s column addresses questions about ‘switching’ from a retirement benefit to a spousal benefit, filing retroactively and then immediately suspending and what benefits might be available on records of ex spouses. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc, which markets Maximize My

Nowhere is President Biden’s ambitious policy agenda more in conflict than in his triple aim of funding a major infrastructure initiative, attacking climate change, and never raising taxes on households making less than $400,000. He has a terrific opportunity to achieve the first two promises, but he cannot if he sticks to that no new

While the IRS extended the tax return deadline to May 17, it kept the usual April 15 date for the first quarterly estimated tax payment of 2021. This is awkward for the many people planning to base 2021 estimated taxes on 2020 income reported in their Form 1040 tax returns. How are you supposed to

The Trump tax reform conspicuously targeted high-tax Democratic states. Now that they’re in control, some Democrats have made undoing the damage a priority. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has always been more reluctant than other Empire State Democrats to soak the rich—just last summer he warned that raising taxes on the state’s billionaires would mean

In late March, thirteen states filed a lawsuit to fight what they claim is “a complete take-over of state finances” by the federal government, “one of the most egregious power grabs by the federal government in the history of the United States.” They want to use federal Covid-19 relief money to cut state taxes, which would continue

Wondering where your tax refund is? In its Covid-19 operations update, the Internal Revenue Service has added an explanation for why in many cases it’s taking longer than the typical 21 days to process tax refunds for individual taxpayers. We’re talking about tax returns filed for the 2020 tax year during the 2021 tax season

This year’s tax filing deadline hasn’t exactly been smooth. It seemed that the April 15 deadline would stick, but then the IRS extended it to May 17. But that didn’t cover everything, notable the April 15 estimated tax payment deadline! What’s more, don’t forget about FBARs either, as that deadline was not extended. The IRS

Tech companies are likely to be hit with tax rises this year as a series of new proposals are muted by multilateral organizations. The first is a “solidarity tax” proposed by the IMF, and designed to fix the income gap between rich and poor that has widened over the past year. It proposes rich nations

Finally the syndicated conservation easement (SCE) empire strikes back. Battered in Tax Court by the IRS, hounded by the Department of Justice seeking criminal charges and injunctions and beleaguered by class action attorneys SCE appraisers are fighting back with a class action lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury along with some individually named IRS

Today’s column addresses questions about an incorrect claim that the new law made it no longer possible to suspend a retirement benefit, whether public pension survivor’s benefits affect Social Security benefits and how the new law changed deeming rules for retirement and spousal benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and

Non-employee platform-based work seems like a sufficiently distinct phenomenon to require changes to either tax forms or the tax code to accommodate the new work arrangements that have arisen over the past decade or so, but the only truly novel element in platform work might be the online platform. The IRS maintains that platform work

U.S. consumers spent over $800 billion online last year, a 44 percent increase over 2019. The pandemic-fueled shift to e-commerce was so significant that IBM estimates the trend away from bricks-and-mortar to digital has been accelerated by five years. On top of that, Americans now pay an average of $47 per month for streaming video

Hawaii and New York rank last in the nation on key economic growth measures, a sign that the pandemic continues to take a toll on major cities and tourism-reliant economies. In its first Index of State Economic Momentum update for 2021, the Federal Funds Information for States’ reports that Hawaii lags the nation’s economic momentum by an

For the second year in a row, you have additional time to file your federal taxes. On March 17th, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced that the federal income tax filing due date for individuals for the 2020 tax year will be automatically extended from April 15, 2021 to May 17, 2021. This

In this episode of Tax Notes Talk, Joel Slemrod and Michael Keen, authors of Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom Through the Ages, share interesting tax facts and lessons learned from history.  The post has been edited for length and clarity. David Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes

Today’s column addresses questions about whether it’s still possible to take spousal benefits after first receiving retirement benefits, what benefits may be available for survivors of a deceased worker and whether public pensions affect divorced spousal benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security

No country has ever taxed its way to prosperity. Ever. Yet President Biden and congressional Democrats are hell bent on pushing through catastrophic tax increases. This episode of What’s Ahead examines what the ugly results would be. In his infrastructure speech the President outlined some of the business tax boosts that he wants. If enacted,

If you invested in a syndicated conservation easement that had Nancy Zak of Forever Forests as one of the consultants, you should be hearing from her soon. And you won’t like what she tells you. Ms. Zak is one of the defendants in a major Department of Justice (DOJ) injunction push against syndicated conservation easements. And she

Now that a high-level U.N. panel has called for a complete overhaul of the global financial system — including a new U.N. tax convention, a U.N. tax body, and a global minimum tax — what will happen next? In April and June, the U.N. will conduct two highly anticipated events: a 2021 financing for development forum and a U.N. General Assembly special anti-corruption session. It

This segment of What’s Ahead walks us through a cute maneuver the Treasury Department is attempting that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars without congressional approval. It’s arcane, but the money consequences are real. It involves something called Special Drawing Rights, SDRs for short. They were created back in the 1960s, when there were fears