Taxes

Valeria Tarasenko of Dentons Kyiv discusses the Ukrainian government’s tax policy changes in response to the Russian invasion. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. ADVERTISEMENT David D. Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International. This week: war and tax. Since February 24 Russia’s

It’s spring-cleaning time, and this year Congress’s efforts could include tidying up the Opportunity Zone program. The discussion over how best to do that got a fresh injection of energy recently. The Opportunity Zones Transparency, Extension, and Improvement Act was introduced on April 7, and it proposes significant changes to sections 1400Z-1 and -2. Like

Did you get a tax refund for 2021? The average is about $3,000 this year. No matter how much you got, the key is to make the best use of it. Here are some options to consider in general order of priority: 1) Get caught up on old bills. For many of the people we

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about filing options when not able to file a restricted application for spousal benefits only, when delayed retirement credits might be applied and how the potential effects of the Government Pension Offset. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic

As if COVID-19 hasn’t been hard enough on cities, a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) raises another worry—lost tax revenues from a weak office sector. Linking data on offices with employment information (especially on working from home), ITEP worries many cities will face declining revenues. The logic works like

While we cope with the immediate crises of Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine, rising inflation, and political turmoil, we’ve been reminded recently of a pervasive, lurking problem: climate change. Scientists have recently documented the rising risks we face globally, including specifically how climate change affects cities and what they can do about it. The documentation

Non-fungible tokens, or “NFTs”, have been the subject of breathless media coverage since early 2021. Are NFTs the new Dutch tulip craze? Anyone who has taken Econ101 in college, probably remembers the Dutch tulip story. It may have even sounded fabricated at the time. When the tulips were being exported and sold (usually to the

The IRS has not provided any specific guidance as of the date of this article on the taxation of NFTs, even though there is some guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrencies. The core IRS statements on cryptocurrency to date have been IRS Notice 2014-10 and a series of FAQs issued in late 2019. As with

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about whether income after 70 can increase benefit rates, taking retirement benefits before survivor’s benefits and how the earnings test is applied if your income ends in the middle of the year. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic

What will deliver higher returns over the next 12 months, I bonds or bitcoin? A year ago such a question would have been silly. Today, not so much. Bitcoin BTC has struggled in 2022, down more than 10%. In contrast, I bonds are set to deliver an estimated 9.62% annualized return starting next month. Here’s

For two years in a row, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners has placed theft of pandemic-related enhanced unemployment benefits at the top of its annual list of five most scandalous frauds. The association compiles its list based on money lost, lives affected, and relevance to the anti-fraud profession. In 2020 and 2021, fraudulent unemployment

Just like with gifts of art, the IRS may decide to treat different people who make gifts of NFTs differently. Creators and dealers may be in a different category from collectors and personal users when it comes to valuation and deductions. In this environment, a creator is the person or entity who creates the NFT

As previously discussed, NFTs are not currency but are very likely considered property by the IRS. Therefore, as with all non-cash transactions over $5,000, a qualified appraisal in accordance with Publication 561 from the IRS is required if a person decides to make a gift of an NFT and seek a charitable deduction. Assuming the

As discussed previously, NFTs could be donated to charity. If you are a nonprofit and are deciding whether to start accepting NFTs, one issue that you must address is how to liquidate the NFT. Most nonprofits have gift acceptance procedures that require immediate liquidation, and any asset given to a nonprofit does not bring any

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig discusses the current state of the tax agency, including the paper return backlog, technology improvements, and hiring updates. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Cara Griffith: Welcome, everyone. I’m Cara Griffith, the president and CEO of Tax Analysts. Now, our guest today needs no introduction but it would

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about how long you have to withdraw an application for benefits, applying online to switch from survivor’s benefits to retirement benefits and the earliest different benefits can begin. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See

It’s tax day folks and the process of preparing them can be difficult if not arduous, especially for more than 14 million taxpayers who ​​paid for tax prep software that they could have gotten for free. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found roughly a billion dollars in revenue for TurboTax maker Intuit INTU

Just like Christmas, tax day comes but once a year. Unlike Christmas, however, tax day moves around a bit. This year, it falls on April 18, thanks to the celebration of Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia. The same will be true next year. Still, April 15 gets all the attention. Every year, the

Are gifts income the IRS can tax? Fortunately, no, but the line between what is income and what is a gift is sometimes fuzzy. Let’s say you do major favors for your employer and get a gift of $20,000, is that really a gift? You might try to document it that way, but it’s not

ProPublica recently reported on a “trove of IRS data” that showed “the incomes and tax rates of the 400 Americans with the highest incomes from 2013 to 2018.” “First, for scale, this is the typical American’s income compared to what it took to get into the top 5%, e.g., a primary care doctor’s salary, or