Taxes

Topline Following days of negotiations, the Senate on Monday struck down a bipartisan amendment to overhaul and clarify newly proposed cryptocurrency tax-reporting requirements included in the Senate’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, dealing a potentially massive blow to a slew of companies concerned they could be forced to hand over transaction information to the Internal Revenue

Does the IRS like to impose penalties? It must, since IRS penalties have a way of creeping into many tax notices, even for innocent mistakes. You might think that if you weren’t trying to cheat on your taxes and just made a mistake, it would be OK. Taxes are complex, and mistakes happen, but the burden

Today’s column addresses questions about whether investment withdrawals can make Social Security benefits subject to income taxes, potential options for filing when you have more than one ex and suspending a retirement benefit after it converted from a disability benefit. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president

Karin Slaughter’s recently released latest novel False Witness focuses on a lawyer in a prestigious Atlanta firm gearing up for a criminal trial. Coincidentally we have this week the outcome of her own legal drama, which likely only excites the tax blogosphere. Her appeal to the Eleventh Circuit of a 2019 Tax Court decision confirming that

Several U.S. Senators have been negotiating over the amendment language in a cryptocurrency tax reporting provision of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is one of many offsets designed to pay for the costs of the bill. These lawmakers are facing tremendous time pressure from the White House as well as the Senate Majority

Employers, accountants and financial advisors recently received new guidance from the IRS on the extremely important and somewhat complicated Employee Retention Credit (”ERC”) which was passed as part of the Cares Act in February of 2020, and became available retroactively and going forward in 2021 to PPP Borrowers. Brandon Ketron, JD, CPA and I presented

Join us on Saturday August 7th at 10:00am EST for a 30 minute webinar discussing the below and other aspects of Notice 2021-49 as well as recently issued Paycheck Protection Program guidance. The webinar can be registered for by emailing info@gassmanpa.com with ERC in the subject line. In a tremendously unpleasant surprise for owners of

Let me tell you about Ember, a small business owner. Her PPP loan through Bank BAC of America was approved for $76,773. A year later, BofA sent her an email that they were retroactively qualifying her for just $4,377! Is this really how Bank of America chooses to treat their best customers? I wrote in

In a sign of the political divide over death taxes, Iowa is repealing its inheritance tax, with a phased-in reduction of the tax bite retroactive to January 1, and full repeal as of January 1, 2025. Abolishing the state inheritance tax was a key priority for Republican Governor Kim Reynolds; it was part of a

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has just made a number of updates to the regulations governing PPP loans that are being welcomed by borrowers and their advisors. These new rules will save tens of thousands of hours for borrowers, accountants, banks and the SBA. Please join Brandon Ketron, JD, CPA and I on Saturday August

By: Alan Gassman and Tina Bhatt The good news and the bad news about the newest Stark Law advisory opinion issue under the Stark Law by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) (Opinion No. CMS-AO-2021-01 issued June 2021).  Many medical practices and their owners that bill Medicare for medical, diagnostic, and treatment services

Today’s column addresses questions about whether it’s possible to reapply for a retirement benefit so it starts earlier, the procedure for switching from a spousal benefit to a retirement benefit at 70 and the earnings test’s potential effects on survivor’s benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and

Tax Notes reporters Amanda Athanasiou and Lauren Loricchio share what they learned reporting on their recent piece, “How the Pandemic Upended Life and Work for Women in Tax,” and their personal experiences. 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

Today Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. introduced an amendment to the latest version of the Senate infrastructure bill that would significantly limit those who are considered to be “brokers” and must adhere to information reporting requirements related to cryptocurrency transactions. The original definition of a “broker” who is required

Are you disenfranchised from state and local tax deductions because you exceed the SALT cap of $10,000 per year?  Organizing an LLC for your business can convert non-deductible SALT into a business expense. Seventeen states have enacted SALT cap workaround laws, and several others are working towards enactment. IRS Notice 2020-75, issued on Nov. 9, 2020, gave

When not in government service Dawn Johnson, Acting Assistant Attorney General, has been a professor teaching constitutional law at the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University in Bloomington. That definitely shows in the Memorandum Opinion that she signed indicating that the Treasury Department should turn over tax returns filed by Donald Trump and some

The Senate is poised to vote on an infrastructure bill containing tax-reporting “revenue” provisions that could have devastating effects on the business model of cryptocurrency products and services. The crypto community is rightly outraged over sweeping language that could harm not just cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase (COIN), but the software developers and other small

In the latest installment of the “Five Minutes on” video series, Tax Notes contributing editors Robert Goulder and Joseph J. Thorndike discuss the relationship between taxes and infrastructure. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Robert Goulder: It’s summertime in Washington, D.C., and the heat index isn’t the only thing that’s rising. There’s been a spike in congressional

While the White House and congressional Democrats are feverishly trying to enact massive, economy-killing tax increases, numerous states are going in the opposite direction by cutting them. These local officials recognize that reducing the tax burden on their citizens will give them more prosperity and the higher revenues that come with better times. Arizona, Ohio,

As the cryptoasset industry awaits a much-discussed European Commission proposal that would extend EU tax reporting rules to cryptoassets and e-money, at least one tax-tech startup is courting investors in anticipation. Austria-based Blockpit is one of a growing number of companies providing automated tax calculations for cryptocurrency trades, income generated from staking, and other crypto-related activities. The