Taxes

The Internal Revenue Service promised it would let families update their income on the Child Tax Credit portal to rightsize their payments this fall, and today announced that the income update functionality will be up and running on Monday, November 1. That’s also the only day—until midnight—you can make updates that will affect your November

The tragic death of Halyna Hutchins from a gun fired by Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie Rust is shocking. Only to Dr. Paul Heinzelmann, host of the upcoming docuseries SafeSets: Staying Healthy and Sane on Film Productions, it is not so shocking. Not A Surprise Dr. Heinzelmann is one of the small

Let’s Dance the 2-Step! Tax advisors and affluent Americans have been working hard to place ownership interests in LLCs and other entities holding their investments under specially designed irrevocable trusts, as gifts or in exchange for promissory notes, in order to have arrangements in place well before the signing of a new estate tax law

What tax hikes are in the social policy and climate change bill that Democrats are trying to pass by year-end? It depends what day it is. The latest version, a revised $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Framework, released today by the White House, is a pared down version of the earlier $3.5 trillion plan. It’s

Ever since Congress capped the state and local tax (SALT) deduction in 2017, a small group of Blue State Democrats has demanded the cap’s repeal. Indeed, they have made it their price for supporting President Biden’s Build Back Better social spending bill. Now, it appears they may get their wish. The result, though, may be

Topline Democrats have already nixed a contentious plan to tax the wealth of roughly 700 billionaires, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) confirmed Wednesday, after moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) voiced concerns earlier in the day over the proposed provision in President Joe Biden’s spending package.  Key Facts At a press conference Wednesday, Neal, chair of the

Professor Jacob Goldin of Stanford Law School discusses proposed changes to the advance child tax credit in draft legislation recently released by House Democrats. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. David D. Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International. This week: more extra credit. When

On Monday, as Tesla shares surged—adding another $26 billion to Elon Musk‘s now $254 billion fortune—certain Democrats in Congress were working away on a proposed new tax on billionaires. Then, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR), unveiled a 107-page plan that would extend the federal long term

Ironically, President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan could remove an important tax credit designed to help thousands of businesses do just that. And it’s likely that small businesses owners in blue states would feel it the most. Called the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), it awards small- and medium-sized businesses up to $28,000 per employee for

Topline As Democrats race to iron out the provisions in their massive new spending plan, one proposal with broad support among moderate party members could actually help the country’s highest earners snag a big tax cut in the first two years—effectively unraveling the gains from a highly publicized proposal to tax billionaire wealth, a nonpartisan

Under intense prodding from Washington a just-concluded confab of 136 nations agreed to new rules for taxing international companies. This segment of What’s Ahead explains why this is a bad deal for the U.S. and should be scuttled by Congress. The Administration hopes to sell a bill of goods to reluctant senators: Other countries are

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) likes to say: “There are two tax codes in the United States: one for workers who pay taxes out of every paycheck and the other for high-fliers who use games and tricks to avoid their taxes.” He’s now proposing to add a third tax code, one for billionaires. But

The Treasury has put out a Fact Sheet on the scaled down bank disclosure reporting requirements currently under consideration – Tax Compliance Proposals Will Improve Tax Fairness While Protecting Taxpayer Privacy. The proposal appears quite controversial. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board gives us The $10,000 IRS Tax Dragnet. The real political goal here is to create

How lawsuit settlements are taxed is surprising and complex. Under the tax code, compensatory damages for personal physical injuries or physical sickness are tax free. In contrast, damages for emotional injuries are fully taxable. Yet if you have emotional injuries triggered by physical ones, the damages for the emotional injuries are also be tax-free. It’s confusing, making

Tax Notes contributing editors Robert Goulder and Joseph J. Thorndike discuss envy and what it might mean for tax policy, all in five minutes.  This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Joseph J. Thorndike: Hi, I’m Joe Thorndike, here today with my Tax Notes colleague, Bob Goulder. We want to talk about envy and what it might

There are many options for student loan forgiveness and discharge, but each has different eligibility restrictions and a different application process. Learn how to apply for student loan forgiveness. Student loan forgiveness and discharge options include: Public Service Loan Forgiveness Teacher Loan Forgiveness Loan Forgiveness for Volunteering Total and Permanent Disability Discharge Death Discharge Closed

Discussion of tax and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) usually focuses on gain income. Analysis of expense deductions, charitable contributions, and worthlessness are less common. As the market for NFTs swells, so will the relevance of those topics. An NFT is a unique data unit stored on a digital ledger that can be sold or traded. Most

As a gay financial planner, I am fortunate to offer financial planning guidance to many LGBT couples. Achieving marriage equality has been great for the LGBT community, in my opinion. From a tax planning standpoint, getting legally married may greatly increase the tax bills for gay and lesbian married couples. The US tax code is

Since 1998, the IRS has been prohibited from assessing penalties against a taxpayer unless the initial determination that the penalties should be assessed was personally approved, in writing, by the examiner’s immediate supervisor. The rule requiring written supervisory approval, 26 U.S.C. § 6751(b), was largely ignored by the IRS and the tax practitioner community until

It’s hard to abandon longstanding rules of thumb. But sometimes circumstances change, and it’s necessary to change our thinking if we want to maximize after-tax wealth. Perhaps the oldest rule in the tax-planning book is to defer taxes whenever possible. “Don’t pay a tax until you have to” is one of the first planning strategies