Taxes

Negotiations over how to fund President Biden’s infrastructure plan have been complicated by the excesses of his first signature initiative, the American Rescue Plan Act. The law included $525 billion in assistance to state and local governments, many of which are now experiencing large budget surpluses. Republicans have proposed those funds be rescinded or repurposed

The drama that commenced just over a year ago when Kent Hovind and Paul John Hansen, as trustee for Creation Science Evangelism, filed a lawsuit in the US District Court Northern District of Florida has come to an unsatisfying though predictable conclusion.  Judge T. Kent Wetherell, II approving the recommendation of Magistrate Michael J. Frank

The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it has started sending out special tax refunds due to an estimated 13 million taxpayers who paid taxes on unemployment benefits when they filed their 2020 tax returns this spring. This week more than 2.8 million of these refunds will go out, and the rest will follow in

The May jobs report is out.  Does it show a healthy jobs recovery on track to a full recovery?  Or do we see a gap of 8 million fewer jobs compared to pre-pandemic levels, with high Black and Hispanic unemployment, and 1.7 million older workers pushed into premature retirement?  The answer is both. We need job quality, not just job growth.

For the handful of Tax Notes readers who don’t already subscribe to Us Weekly, let me acquaint you with a regular feature of that magazine: “Stars — They’re Just Like Us!” Using paparazzi photos, this column depicts celebrities performing mundane but relatable tasks. “They go to the post office!” the magazine trumpets with trademark enthusiasm. “They walk dogs!”

Your home or business is hit by a disaster – hurricane; fire; flood – you name it.  Homeowners and businesses often have insurance to protect against disaster – and many times the dealings with the insurance company will go like butter. This is great news. However, there are other times when an insurance company gives their client

There is a well-known saying, “the map is not the territory,” that metaphorically illustrates the differences between belief and reality. Through our perception of the world, we create a ‘map’ of what we perceive to be reality. However, reality, or the “territory”, exists independent of our subjective experiences. We see as far as getting to

Biden’s Fiscal Year 2022 Revenue Proposal aims to catch crypto tax evaders by reinforcing existing information reporting rules and information sharing agreements between jurisdictions.  What is Information Reporting?  Information reporting is the primary way that regulators like the IRS knows about your crypto activity. Cryptocurrency exchanges are required by law to collect your personal identification

Those of us who have been writing about the federal budgets for too long remember the sad history of presidents trotting out wildly optimistic economic assumptions to explain away growing deficits and debt. It was a tried-and-true way to hide their unwillingness to pay for ambitious spending with too little tax revenue. Former President Trump

In this episode of Tax Notes Talk, Tax Notes legal reporter Jennifer McLoughlin and contributing editor Kristen Parillo discuss two important tax cases heard by the Supreme Court: Americans for Prosperity Foundation and CIC Services.  This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. David Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International. This

Coming to a corporate balance sheet near you: multi-jurisdictional complexity. This week, in what must seem like a case of déjà vu, multinationals were once again put on notice that a tax reckoning is on its way. This time, it was the European Union gearing up to sharpen its pencils, as it introduced a plan

Anticipating President Biden’s proposed increase in the capital gains tax rate, taxpayers are deciding whether and how to accelerate gains or how to defer them after an increase for as long as possible. The uncertainty around the timing and extent of the increase, as well as other important details that will need to be established during

Tax collectors are coming after you as never before. This is bad news for a sustainable global economic recovery from the pandemic. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is proposing that countries around the world enact a global minimum corporate tax rate—and this idea is just for starters. Plans are being developed to have global tax

It is no secret that the IRS wants you to report your crypto gains. You can report crypto losses too, but the IRS cares less about that. The government still seems to think millions of transactions and dollars might still be unreported. You might think you won’t be caught, but the risks are growing. The

If your uncle, best friend or bank loans you money, is it taxable? Nope, not if it’s a real loan. But the loan or income distinction lands many people in trouble with the IRS. Besides, interest rates on risky loans like litigation funding and pre-IPO stock are high, and you might not be able to

Today’s column addresses questions about potential effects of having filed early, making sure your benefits are actually suspended even if a representative mistakenly says you can’t suspend them and potentially available benefits on an ex’s record. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning,

In a recent case, a bankruptcy court had to consider whether to allow a debtor in a Chapter 13 plan to make voluntary contributions to her retirement plan.  This is an interesting and important issue, particularly for retirement planning and retirement preparedness. Indeed, saving in an employer-sponsored retirement plan with its attendant benefits—such as employer-matching

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) was passed in December 2017, many residents on the east and west coast felt like they heard fingernails scrapping against a chalkboard. It officially become federal law that the maximum amount of state and local taxes (“SALT”) that could be included as a federal itemized deduction, and thereby

The White House will release a $6 trillion budget plan amid complaints from the GOP about wasteful spending and ruinous debt, but their guy also added to the national debt big-time. As President Joe Biden releases his first detailed spending plan later today and continues to push for trillions in infrastructure spending, Republicans are amping

Today’s column addresses questions about whether and when Social Security will fix problems with benefit calculation for those born in 1960, effects of the earnings test on survivor’s benefits and qualifying for divorced spousal benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc,