Taxes

While we cope with the immediate crises of Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine, rising inflation, and political turmoil, we’ve been reminded recently of a pervasive, lurking problem: climate change. Scientists have recently documented the rising risks we face globally, including specifically how climate change affects cities and what they can do about it. The documentation

Non-fungible tokens, or “NFTs”, have been the subject of breathless media coverage since early 2021. Are NFTs the new Dutch tulip craze? Anyone who has taken Econ101 in college, probably remembers the Dutch tulip story. It may have even sounded fabricated at the time. When the tulips were being exported and sold (usually to the

The IRS has not provided any specific guidance as of the date of this article on the taxation of NFTs, even though there is some guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrencies. The core IRS statements on cryptocurrency to date have been IRS Notice 2014-10 and a series of FAQs issued in late 2019. As with

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about whether income after 70 can increase benefit rates, taking retirement benefits before survivor’s benefits and how the earnings test is applied if your income ends in the middle of the year. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic

What will deliver higher returns over the next 12 months, I bonds or bitcoin? A year ago such a question would have been silly. Today, not so much. Bitcoin BTC has struggled in 2022, down more than 10%. In contrast, I bonds are set to deliver an estimated 9.62% annualized return starting next month. Here’s

For two years in a row, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners has placed theft of pandemic-related enhanced unemployment benefits at the top of its annual list of five most scandalous frauds. The association compiles its list based on money lost, lives affected, and relevance to the anti-fraud profession. In 2020 and 2021, fraudulent unemployment

Just like with gifts of art, the IRS may decide to treat different people who make gifts of NFTs differently. Creators and dealers may be in a different category from collectors and personal users when it comes to valuation and deductions. In this environment, a creator is the person or entity who creates the NFT

As previously discussed, NFTs are not currency but are very likely considered property by the IRS. Therefore, as with all non-cash transactions over $5,000, a qualified appraisal in accordance with Publication 561 from the IRS is required if a person decides to make a gift of an NFT and seek a charitable deduction. Assuming the

As discussed previously, NFTs could be donated to charity. If you are a nonprofit and are deciding whether to start accepting NFTs, one issue that you must address is how to liquidate the NFT. Most nonprofits have gift acceptance procedures that require immediate liquidation, and any asset given to a nonprofit does not bring any

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig discusses the current state of the tax agency, including the paper return backlog, technology improvements, and hiring updates. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Cara Griffith: Welcome, everyone. I’m Cara Griffith, the president and CEO of Tax Analysts. Now, our guest today needs no introduction but it would

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about how long you have to withdraw an application for benefits, applying online to switch from survivor’s benefits to retirement benefits and the earliest different benefits can begin. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See

It’s tax day folks and the process of preparing them can be difficult if not arduous, especially for more than 14 million taxpayers who ​​paid for tax prep software that they could have gotten for free. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found roughly a billion dollars in revenue for TurboTax maker Intuit INTU

Just like Christmas, tax day comes but once a year. Unlike Christmas, however, tax day moves around a bit. This year, it falls on April 18, thanks to the celebration of Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia. The same will be true next year. Still, April 15 gets all the attention. Every year, the

Are gifts income the IRS can tax? Fortunately, no, but the line between what is income and what is a gift is sometimes fuzzy. Let’s say you do major favors for your employer and get a gift of $20,000, is that really a gift? You might try to document it that way, but it’s not

ProPublica recently reported on a “trove of IRS data” that showed “the incomes and tax rates of the 400 Americans with the highest incomes from 2013 to 2018.” “First, for scale, this is the typical American’s income compared to what it took to get into the top 5%, e.g., a primary care doctor’s salary, or

Congress is raising the age you must start withdrawing from taxable retirement accounts. But waiting too long can raise your taxes and Medicare Part B premiums. What’s best for you requires careful calculation, not following rules of dumb. The answer is definitely yes! But let me provide some background for why this question is of

As of April 1, more than 70 million taxpayers have gotten refunds, averaging $3,175, on their 2021 tax returns. If you file your tax return electronically, choose direct deposit and don’t make any mistakes, you could get your refund in 21 days or less. If you file on paper, you’re stuck in line behind folks

Doing your taxes this holiday weekend? As of April 8, the Internal Revenue Service had processed nearly 100 million individual tax returns for tax year 2021 and issued more than 70 million refunds. The average refund: $3,175. Here are some last-minute tips on how to get a bigger tax refund, including some special tax breaks

Jobs are coming back from the pandemic recession in many sectors, with healthy growth across many industries—but not state and local government. We need public employment to provide the infrastructure and services that make a modern economy run while taking care of those in need, and our failure to invest in public workers is costly

There are two universal principles regarding the reasonableness of employee compensation: (i) most people feel they are undercompensated and (ii) those same people feel their friends and neighbors are overcompensated. There are many reasons for this phenomenon, but for our unscientific purposes it’s enough to think of reasonableness like beauty – it’s in the eyes