Taxes

There are plenty of different categories at the Academy Awards, and not all celebs come away with awards or even gifts. Some get swag worth $60,000, but top nominees get a jam-packed gift bag worth $205,000. There’s a long tradition of gifts at the Oscars and with good reason. Companies pay promoters to place their

Topline As President Joe Biden enters the final stretch of his first 100 days in office, he’s still garnering approval from a majority of Americans—and faring better than his predecessor—but an overwhelming majority of voters are still concerned about the economy as concerns over gun laws and immigration also come to the fore, according to

Today’s column addresses questions about whether child benefits will be reduced if the record holder filed early for their own retirement benefit, whether investing in stocks and cryptocurrency count as earnings and whether collecting early divorced spousal benefits reduce later retirement benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder

Early last month, President Biden met with a group of prominent historians, seeking their guidance on how to build a transformative presidency.  Axios described the two-hour session as a “for-the-history-books marker of the think-big, go-big mentality that pervades his West Wing.” Biden peppered his guests with questions about America’s most consequential presidents: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson, and the like. But one

Every so often I focus on what seems, from personal experience, to represent customer “support” bordering on consumer fraud. Reasonable customer service is part and parcel of what one is purchasing from our increasingly small number of mammoth retail companies. As those who read my Forbes columns know, I generally write about issues of general

Biden is proposing to increase the highest long-term capital gains tax rate from 20% to 39.6% for those who make over 1 million dollars of income. This tax hike would negatively impact crypto whales who are sitting on large amounts of unrealized gains.   How Are Cryptocurrency Capital Gains Taxed Currently? Capital gains tax is

Households making $1 million or more a year would receive half the benefit of repealing the $10,000 federal cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, according to new estimates by the Tax Policy Center. Seventy percent of the benefit would go to those making $500,000 or more. At the same time, 96 percent

For many organizations trading in goods, the end of this month could mark the end of the second phase of Brexit and the start of a next. In this third phase, organizations are likely to want to take the time to review how effective their import and export movements have been so far and to

Topline Stocks fell sharply Thursday afternoon after a Bloomberg report that President Joe Biden is hoping to hike the capital gains rate to as much as 43.4%, sounding an alarm for investors concerned over the potential toll on trading profits. Key Facts As of 2:10 p.m. Eastern, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 368

As more and more people get Covid-19 vaccinations, it is becoming increasingly possible to return to pre-pandemic group activity—restaurants, movie theaters, baseball stadiums, concerts—and office work.  So don’t assume you can work at home indefinitely.  It will depend on your job, your company’s workplace culture, and your boss. During the pandemic’s height, journalists speculated that office work was dead, shifting

In the game of tax chicken that is the 2021 filing season the IRS has swerved, albeit involuntarily, again. Despite repeatedly doubling down on the stance that first quarter estimated tax payments were due on April 15, the latest in a series of IRS system glitches has caused payments for many taxpayers not to be

Mayors in blue states are lining up with Democrats in Congress to pressure the White House into restoring a tax break that was significantly reduced by former President Trump’s tax reform. On Wednesday, Rep. Thomas Suozzi (N.Y.) joined officials from Albany; Columbia, S.C.; Philadelphia and San Diego to call for a repeal of the rule

New York Attorney General Letitia James has weighed in on the low-income housing tax credit Year 15 struggle. In cooperation with James E. Johnson New York City’s Corporation Counsel, she has filed an amicus brief supporting RiseBoro Community Partnership (RiseBoro) in its litigation with AIG affiliate, Sun America Housing Fund 682, over ownership and control of 35

The federal minimum wage increase didn’t survive the “Byrd bath” process in the Senate in the first budget bill this year because it wasn’t sufficiently related to the budget, but what if it was repackaged as a tax instead? That’s the question that economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley,

In an ordinary year, filing taxes can be annoying, confusing, stressful, and costly. Throw in a COVID-19 pandemic, and all the financial chaos that has followed, and it can be completely overwhelming. The tax year 2020 seems to be throwing many tax preparers for a loop. Many taxpayers are in desperate need of their stimulus

An IRS Memorandum released on April 9, 2021 (Number: 202114020) further clarifies when cryptocurrency hard forks should be taxed. The memorandum specifically talks about bitcoin (BTC) & bitcoin cash (BCH) hard fork occurred on August 1, 2017 at 9:16 AM EDT. Pursuant to the hard fork, people who held BTC received an equivalent amount of

Could the corporate blowback against GOP efforts to rewrite voting rules in Georgia and other states drive congressional Republicans to accept some of President Biden’s proposals to raise taxes on US corporations and, gulp, their shareholders and top executives? Well, probably not. But the endless stories about the growing rift between big business and many

Another class action lawsuit is hitting the beleaguered syndicated conservation easement industry. As in the other three, which are covered here, here and here, David Deary is the lead attorney. The case is Hoover et al v Strategic Capital Partners, LLC et al and the complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern

Many lawyers are asked about tax issues, at least in a general way. For example, clients may ask whether legal fees they pay are tax deductible. Unfortunately, many tax issues are complex, even tax deductions for legal fees. Except for tax lawyers, many lawyers try to steer clear of tax questions. Still, many lawyers want

President Biden’s $2 trillion-plus American Jobs Plan has lots of funding for traditional physical infrastructure, but also for workforce development, high-speed broadband, child care facilities, and a $400 billion expansion of care for the elderly and disabled.  Although this expansion has been criticized, Biden is more than justified in expanding the definition of “infrastructure” to match our