Taxes

With 87,000 new IRS agents on the way now that the the Inflation Reduction Act is unleashing a Tougher IRS, there’s lots of tax about tax audits. After all, tax returns are annual, and getting them filed also means starting the clock ticking for how long the IRS has to audit you. But when might

As Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office on March 4, 1933, the United States was struggling through the darkest days of the Great Depression. A quarter of the nation’s workers were unemployed, the banking system was nearing collapse, and economic activity had dropped to roughly a third of its 1929 level. The FDR

Guessers of the unguessable are right half the time. Larry Summers was lucky to predict inflation based on an argument about stimulus raising prices that’s unsupported by the facts. Now he’s using his “clairvoyance” to goad the Fed to overreact and kill the economy. A year and a half ago, Larry Summers predicted in a

Chances are you’ve heard about the child tax credit. Aside from the name, most Americans don’t know how it works, who qualifies, and how it helps you save money. Understanding these tax credit basics can help you make smarter financial moves and, hopefully, get ahead financially. What Is The Child Tax Credit? The Child Tax

The New York Times NYT reported that Chicago businessman Barre Seid donated his entire business, tax free, to the Marble Freedom Trust, a tax-exempt advocacy organization run by conservative activist Leonard Leo. A few months later, the Trust sold the stock for more than $1.6 billion. And now it can use the tax savings to

The IRS gets a piece of most lawsuit recoveries, but how taxes play out on this one might surprise you. A Los Angeles jury found LA County liable for negligence and invasion of privacy, awarding Kobe Bryant’s widow $16 million and $15 million to Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter Peyton were also killed. The

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about whether the earnings test can a spouse’s benefit, changing benefit payment dates and a foreign pension’s potential effect on benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See more Ask Larry answers here. Have Social

Professor Jeremy Bearer-Friend of the George Washington University Law School highlights key areas of the IRS’s tax enforcement where racial bias can occur. 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: colorblind tax enforcement.

Understanding how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will affect the Internal Revenue Service’s operations requires wading through a swamp of misinformation, disinformation, and no information. But to cut through much of the political muck, here are the facts we know and some key questions about how the IRS will spend the substantial new funding provided

There was some rain on the parade of celebration of the student loan debt forgiveness. The Tax Foundation, perhaps with a touch of schadenfreude, announced that the forgiveness, while not federally taxable due to recent legislation, might be taxable in as many as thirteen states. They have taken a closer look and backpedaled quite a

Throughout the global pandemic, a number of medical diagnostic testing businesses worked hard to provide COVID-19 testing services, investing significant resources in a short time to scale up their operations to support the demand for testing. As the UK and other countries engaged with the challenge faced by COVID-19 and the reality that people had

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about how timing of the record holder’s retirement benefit can affect their spouse’s benefit drawn on their record, survivor benefits and the earnings test and informing SSA of a divorce. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning,

As the US continues struggling with Covid-19 and economic recovery, debate is growing about the revival of “industrial policy”—government -led efforts to favor certain industries over others, in contradiction to market fundamentalist approaches.  An important new forum in the Boston Review takes on these issues and is well worth your attention.  For our future prosperity, these issues are more

The past 18-month stretch has been challenging with health, social, and financial turmoil seeming to come daily. As many are looking forward to the future, they are also excited to finalize their 2020 individual federal income tax filings by October 15th and put 2020 in the rear-view window.  But before any 2020 individual income tax returns

The proposed tax legislation coming out of House Ways and Means addresses a long running dispute between sponsors of low income housing tax credit deals and investors. The legislation favors the sponsors. To understand the issue I need to briefly explain how the credit works.  Overview Of The Credit  The owner of the building, typically a partnership,

Jordan Bass of the firm Taxing Cryptocurrency discusses the proposed cryptocurrency tax changes that Congress is considering and how they could affect taxpayers and the digital asset industry. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Marie Sapirie: Thank you, Jordan, for joining me today to discuss the rapidly changing tax rules and in particular,

Helping people to save more for retirement is a popular idea in Congress these days. But this episode of What’s Ahead warns that a big change that just cleared a critical committee in the House of Representatives would do far more harm than good. Moreover, it would be an administrative nightmare. The proposal would force

When you are planning for a retirement income you can’t outlive, you must not forget about taxes. How much you will owe in taxes during your retirement years will depend on a combination of how your retirement income is generated and the dollar amount of your retirement income stream. Sadly, many pre-retirees forget about taxes

Today’s column addresses questions about whether it would be good to wait till January to file ensure all current earnings are used to determine benefit amounts, requesting an Administrative Law Judge hearing and the availability of larger childhood disability benefits (CDBs) when the higher earner files. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston

Thanks to historic investment returns over the last year, state public pension plans are in their best shape since the Great Recession. After state pension debt grew to more than $1.4 trillion last year, two new reports estimate that gap between the total amount states have promised to retirees and what they’ve actually set aside