Taxes

Tax Analysts Chief Content Officer Jeremy Scott reviews the 2021 developments in U.S. tax legislation and speculates what lies ahead in 2022. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. David D. Stewart: Happy New Year from Tax Notes. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International. This week: 2021 wrap up. We’re continuing

In 2021, the Child Tax Credit (CTC), helped nearly all families with children. But this year, because American Rescue Plan (ARP) expansions have lapsed, it is concentrating benefits on middle-income families. High- and low-income parents are receiving more limited assistance. And, as Democrats try to find a path forward for their stalled Build Back Better (BBB) social

The Eleventh Circuit has thrown a monkey wrench into the IRS machinery grinding away at abusive conservation easement deductions. Judge Barbara Lagoa, a Trump appointee, wrote the opinion in David and Tammy Hewitt v Commissioner of IRS issued on December 29, 2021.  The Hewitts were appealing a 2020 Tax Court decision by Judge Goeke. The Hewitts had

It is unremarkable that big technological advances usually bring about new ways of doing the same old business, or sometimes create entirely new industries. It is also unremarkable that significant technological changes often leave states scrambling to update their tax codes and regulations. What is remarkable is that it doesn’t take a great deal of

Just as optimism began to eke its way into the minds of corporate leaders, a wave of uncertainty reared its ugly head. Between the persistent problem of inflation and the central bank’s effort to tamp it down in the face of the latest COVID-19 variant, Omicron, corporate forecasts have begun to build in allowances for

As 2022 begins, tax practitioners everywhere are looking to the upcoming tax season with trepidation and dread. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the tax industry has not just been preparing tax returns. Rather they have been administering numerous plans from helping clients obtain PPP to reconciling stimulus payments to dealing with an increase in state audits. On

Before you read on, please be warned that you’re about to take life advice from a man who spent Christmas Eve in sweatpants, eating a reheated burrito and playing Castlevania. In all fairness, I didn’t EXPECT to spend Christmas alone, fending off Dracula in between bites of lukewarm Mexican food. After all, I do have

My previous blog documented California’s 2020 population loss, the first time that’s happened since the state was founded.  Billionaire Elon Musk has moved to Texas, but the biggest worry for the state is the loss of lower and middle-income residents, likely driven by California’s high housing costs.  The state must fix its housing affordability problem for a more

Tax Notes’ Robert Goulder, Nana Ama Sarfo, and Stephanie Soong Johnston discuss the OECD’s inclusive framework — how it came into existence and where it’s headed in the future. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Robert Goulder: Welcome to the latest edition of “In the Pages.” This month’s featured article is titled, “A

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about how income earned after previous earnings are inflation indexed at 62 affect how benefits rates are calculated, recalculation of WEP reductions due to substantial covered earnings and the family maximum benefit. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic

Nestled in President Biden’s recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a bipartisan feat that deserves more attention: the resurrection of Superfund excise taxes on dozens of chemicals and hazardous substances. The original Superfund taxes — used to fund hazardous waste site cleanups, including landfills and abandoned factories — expired in 1995. Since then,

In 2020, California experienced something that’s never been recorded since statehood in 1850—a loss of population.  Is this just a temporary bump due to the Covid-19 pandemic, or the start of an historic “exodus” where the state’s climate challenges, taxes, and failure to provide affordable housing have finally caught up with it? First, the numbers.  The California Department

Tax Notes reporters recap some of the unusual tax stories they covered in 2021, from an international basketball player’s tax troubles to a court fight in India over a Michael Jackson concert tax.  This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. David D. Stewart: Happy holidays from Tax Notes. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes

Tax increases probably are coming. Even if Congress doesn’t agree on substantial increases this year, they’re likely to come. The 2017 tax law is scheduled to expire after 2025. The pre-2018 tax law will be re-instated automatically unless Congress agrees to something else. Plus, the trillions of dollars added to the national debt the last

Often when you look up incomes by state, the data is actually showing the nominal household income, rather than what an individual person is earning. For a better glimpse of incomes in the United States, looking at per capita income can be helpful. Real personal income per capita is income per person adjusted for state

It feels like everyone sold their homes this year. And why not?  The property market is up big time. Zillow Research found that the US home market was up 19.5% in 2021 and they are further projecting that 2022 home prices will be up another 11%. For many, getting top dollar for their homes has been

by Doug Sheppard Tax Notes State recognizes Harley Duncan of KPMG LLP as its person of the year. In addition to his current position as a managing director at KPMG, Duncan’s lengthy and distinguished career includes stints as secretary of the Kansas Department of Revenue from 1983 to 1988 and as executive director of the Federation of Tax Administrators from 1988 to 2008. Following

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about why Social Security’s estimates of future retirement benefits may fluctuate, requesting that a benefit rate be recalculated and how rates might increase even after 70. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See more Ask

Judge Urda picked the shortest day of the year to issue an opinion that can serve as a Christmas present to taxpayers vulnerable to Code Section 183, the hobby loss rule. William R. Huff TCM 2021-140 is the first, and likely the only, taxpayer victory in a Section 183 case in 2021. And keeping with the Christmas

When you are a business owner, tax planning is essential as your income grows. The problem seems to be that when your business takes off, there just isn’t enough time in the day for everything, and tax planning gets ignored. Good news for high-income business owners, one of the best tax-saving retirement plans, the Cash