Taxes

Welcome to Fall. The season where, predicably, the weather gets cooler, the leaves change color, and Congress puts on its annual fiscal crisis. This year, we all get to watch a quadruple-header: Will Congress pass a $1 trillion—or perhaps $552 billion— infrastructure bill? Will Congress approve a massive social spending bill including major tax increases

After around 12 months of significant upheaval, organizations trading in goods are taking a period of reflection to assess how well their post-Brexit international supply chains have been working. Others have carried out exercises to address any gaps that may have appeared with their VAT and Customs Duty compliance obligations.  This article focuses on several

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped steeply on September 7 despite the feel-good news that El Salvador has made bitcoin legal tender along with U.S. dollars. In fact, the crypto flash crash wiped out $400 billion in market value. Bitcoin itself dipped about 10% to less than $44,000 but recouped some of that by day’s end.

Federal unemployment benefits ended this month for millions of Americans and data show that workers in Virginia might feel it the most. The federal government’s enhanced unemployment benefit added $300 to weekly unemployment checks issued by states and also expanded coverage to the self-employed and freelancers, such as rideshare drivers and musicians. That expansion, called

Congress is heading into a heated debate about how much taxes should be raised to finance President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. While pragmatic Democrats may not agree with every proposal being considered, there is one that the whole party should unite behind: closing the step-up basis loophole. When investors sell an asset, such as

Nikki E. Dobay, a partner with Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP’s tax practice group, discusses the SALT cap workarounds for passthrough entities that many states have adopted and possible coming developments for those policies. 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’s column addresses questions about potential retirement benefit rate increases at full retirement age (FRA), spousal benefits based on the record of someone receiving Social Security disability benefits and maximizing benefits after retiring earlier than expected. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning,

As Congress debates whether to extend the major, but temporary, changes to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) it adopted earlier this year, a crucial question is whether it should keep the credit fully refundable. A new Tax Policy Center analysis finds that, for low-income families, full refundability is a key element of the CTC reforms. For families

Topline Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proposed a bill Friday to levy a new tax on the booming market for corporate stock buybacks, putting yet another target on Wall Street as Democrats propose a slew of new tax measures to help shore up funds for a $3.5 trillion budget bill facing tough

By Chris Farrell, Next Avenue Whew! The pandemic had a smaller impact on the Social Security trust funds — that is, Social Security’s solvency — than many feared during the depths of the pandemic downturn. According to the new 2021 annual report from the Social Security Trustees, the depletion date for the combined trust funds —retirement and

When Congress debates major legislation, the public often focuses on a single narrow issue—one frequently irrelevant to the main point of the bill. It happened when the Senate debated the $1 trillion infrastructure measure last month: Many paid outsized attention to tax reporting for cryptocurrency, a proposal that would have funded less than 3 percent

Do Americans need a nudge from their employers—and a handout from Washington—to get them to save for retirement? That’s the premise behind draft retirement language in the the House Ways and Means Committee mark up of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. Under the proposal, starting in 2023, employers with five or more employees would

Forty years ago today, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the largest tax cut in American history.  This segment of What’s Ahead outlines how this historic legislation set in motion a train of events that led to an outcome once considered an utter impossibility: the peaceable collapse of

The Tax Court decision in the case of the Estate of Michael Jackson is a rare combination. The celebrity nature of the case broke it out of the tax ghetto of the blogosphere, which doesn’t happen every day. And within the tax world it sets a sort of precedent in the area of celebrity “image and likeness”. Like

It’s no secret that the IRS is after crypto in a big way, with warnings, a series of cryptocurrency John Doe Summonses served on exchanges and even a crypto question on every tax return. Selling crypto can obviously trigger taxes, but even buying something with crypto can trigger taxes. In fact, even paying taxes in crypto can

Today’s column addresses questions about whether Social Security employees are really correct when they deny the ability to suspend a retirement benefits, turning 62 when receiving disability benefits and the ability to collect survivor’s benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc,

The Taliban, in a shocking blitzkrieg, have swept through Afghanistan in less than a month, the 300,000-man Afghan army all but melting away in their path. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, as he fled to Tajikistan over the weekend, conceded in a statement that the Taliban had won, “with the judgment of their swords and guns,

The law on the limits of state tax and regulatory authority regarding Native American tribes is complicated. The law may seem clear, yet there are instances in which a different interpretation is applied, as with the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Big Sandy. Setting the Scene California has comprehensive regulations designed to reduce illegal trafficking in cigarette and

Inflation: It’s the economic condition that keeps politicians up at night, and helps all the talking heads on cable news stay in orbit. But the rising cost of goods and services is also capable of creating a breeding ground for corporate volatility. And unless a CFO has hired The West Wing’s Josh Lyman to drum

If you didn’t get your August advance child tax credit in your bank account today, you’re not alone. Due to “an issue,” a percentage—less than 15%—of folks who got their payment by direct deposit in July will be mailed paper checks for the August payment, according to an Internal Revenue Service news release. Another way