Taxes

Topline Benefitting from Trump-era tax cuts and capitalizing on loopholes in the tax code, at least 55 prominent U.S. companies paid $0 in federal corporate income taxes in 2020 on billions of dollars in profits, according to a report published Friday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Key Facts Analysts determined that the

In the past few weeks, the internet chatter has been about something called “nonfungible tokens,” or NFTs. Although this object is a creature of blockchain technology, it is by definition not a cryptocurrency. This is what “nonfungible” means. Each token is unique. Much of what we are seeing seems to be an early proof of

The IRS wants crypto tax data in a big way, from asking on each tax return, it’s latest Hidden Treasure initiative and more. Now, a federal court in Massachusetts entered an order authorizing the IRS to serve a John Doe summons on Circle Internet Financial Inc., or its predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, including Poloniex

Today’s column addresses questions about potential effects of retroactive retirement benefits on later spousal benefits, potential survivor benefits for non-citizens living outside the US and how marriage can affect eligibility for disable adult child benefits based on a parent’s record. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president

On March 30, the Department of Justice, Tax Division, filed a petition for leave to serve a “John Doe” summons on Payward Ventures, also known as “Kraken,” requesting account information for all United States taxpayers who held accounts there with the equivalent value of $20,000 or more in cryptocurrency for any one year from 2016

US-based multinational corporations can’t say they were not warned. President Biden today proposed the major tax increases on US firms that he promised during the 2020 campaign. He’d use the new revenues to pay for his  American Jobs Plan, a massive new $2 trillion-plus effort to improve US infrastructure and expand other domestic programs. Could

On Friday, we will get the unemployment report for March, and forecasters hope for continued improvement from the deep Covid-19 recession.  But we are still hurting from that dramatic decline and the economic recovery is at risk if we relax our public health measures too soon.   We’re still feeling the economic effects of the Covid-19 recession.  The

Got a .edu email address? You might be the target of the latest Internal Revenue Service impersonation scam. The IRS issued a warning today that scammers using phishing emails are targeting university and college students and staff from both public and private, profit and non-profit institutions.  The scammers appear to be targeted those who have

The Internal Revenue Service announced today that most Social Security, SSI and RRB benefit recipients who don’t file a tax return should get their $1,400 Round 3 stimulus payments electronically by April 7, while stimulus payments for Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who don’t file a tax return could be sent out by mid-April.  These folks—among the

Two of our good friends just got married, and of course, they asked me what this meant for their taxes as a gay couple. While I am a huge fan of marriage equality, I don’t love all the marriage penalties in our tax code. Many of these penalties are especially onerous for high-earning gay couples.

When is a tax return not a tax return? What does it mean for a return to be properly filed with the IRS? When is a nonfiler not really a nonfiler? These seem like basic questions that should be easily answered under a modern tax system. In most cases they are — but not universally. Things

When President Biden unveils the next phase of his Build Back Better recovery agenda in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, he’s expected to propose a $3 trillion spending plan broken into two major components. The first consists of investments in “traditional” infrastructure, such as transportation, waterways, broadband, and clean energy. The second component will consist of what

Today’s column addresses questions about benefit rates after filing early, who can still file restricted applications for spousal benefits only and what happens when a disabled child turns 18. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc, which markets Maximize My Social Security

Many retirees and people who took Covid-related retirement plan distributions might need some extra time to work through their 2020 tax returns. Those who took distributions from traditional IRAs at any point during 2020 will receive a Form 1099-R reporting the distributions to them and the IRS. Putting these on your tax return to minimize

One of the unintended consequences of the additional unemployment compensation (UC) provided as part of Congress’ Covid-related relief to taxpayers was that the extra income put many households over 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL). The income change resulted in many taxpayers having to make a full repayment of their healthcare marketplace subsidy (the

United States v. Jane Boyd and Kimble v. United States, decided within two days of each other, delivered very different messages to taxpayers who have foreign financial account reporting obligations. Boyd, decided in the Ninth Circuit, holds that the IRS may impose only one non-willful penalty when a taxpayer files an untimely, but accurate, Report

Will New York City ever recover from the pandemic? This segment of What’s Ahead points out that the rot eating away at the Big Apple was underway before Covid-19 hit. People and enterprises were already pulling up stakes because of a serious decline in the quality of life: • Rising crime,  a result of an emasculated

The decision by the IRS to extend the initial filing due date of individual tax returns to May 17 was mostly a good thing. Maybe not as good a thing as the extension to July 15 in 2020, but it was something. There was a wrinkle though. Unlike in 2020 the due date of first quarter estimated tax

With a little over nine months left in his second (and last) term, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio has appointed a Racial Justice Commission “tasked with targeting and dismantling structural and institutional racism across the City.”  How much can New York—or any city on its own—do about this deeply embedded problem? There’s no question that cities and the

Today’s column addresses questions about how stopping work years before claiming benefits can affect benefit rates, when exactly to submit an application to begin benefits the mont you turn 70 and potential effects of marriage on existing benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic