Taxes

Filing business-related taxes can often be a time-consuming and complicated process, especially for new entrepreneurs. Small business owners need a good understanding of the federal, state, and local taxes required to file. The types of taxes can range from income, employment, excise, and sales. It is critical that business owners are set up for success

Topline Key Facts The bill would apply an additional 10% tax to individual incomes that exceed $1 million and the income of married couples above $2 million. The surtax would apply equally to wages, for which the top tax rate is 37%, and investment income, including capital gains, for which taxes max out at 20%

             With the new administration calling for a significant increase in funding for the IRS -– many potential tax whistleblowers are considering whether they should now come forward and submit a Form 211 to the IRS.  The Form 211 is the path for submitting information (and requesting an award) to the IRS about individuals and businesses

Topline As government actions rock the cryptocurrency markets, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig urged senators Tuesday to provide the agency with the congressional authority to require more reporting on cryptocurrency transactions and holders to increase tax collections, suggesting recent proposals by President Joe Biden’s administration could only be the beginning of heightened U.S. oversight of cryptocurrencies. 

Nearly all of President Biden’s proposed tax increases would be borne by the highest income 1 percent of households—those making about $800,000 or more—according to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center. At the same time, Biden would cut taxes for many low- and moderate-income households and reduce them substantially for those with children.

It appears that the White House is planning to make the effective date for its proposed tax increase on long-term capital gains retroactive to April 2021. If this were to happen, it may not only seem unfair, but it is also bad tax policy. President Biden’s American Families Plan proposes increasing the tax rate on

Topline After the release of a major investigation by ProPublica based on over 15 years of confidential data from the Internal Revenue Service showed that the wealthiest Americans often pay little to no federal income tax, the agency’s Commissioner Charles Rettig told lawmakers that internal and external investigators are working to determine whether the data

Today’s column addresses questions about when spousal benefits can become available based on a spouse’s Social Security record, whether a foreign pension will reduce divorced spousal benefits and when a non-covered pension may cause Social Security benefits to be reduced. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president

The IRS Fiscal Year 2022 Budget talks about cryptocurrency and how the service is planning to use in-house technology and outside contractors to reinforce crypto tax compliance. Within the $13.2 billion total 2022 budget, $32 million ($3 million on IT specialist compensation, $6 million on hardware & software and $23 million on contractors) is allocated to

This past Saturday finance officials from the U.S., Britain, Germany, Japan, France, Italy and Canada—the so-called G7–concocted a scheme for imposing a worldwide minimum corporate tax on large international companies of “at least 15%.”  But this episode of What’s Ahead warns that the agreement is only the first in a series of future deals to raise

Season 3 of The Kominsky Method is now streaming on Netflix NFLX , starring Michael Douglas as an aging actor who owns and operates an acting studio. With apologies for being late* to the party, season one features a story line with massive IRS problems that the fictional Sandy Kominsky and his acting studio must

Here I go again, harping on the United States’ stubborn adherence to citizenship-based taxation. I have previously argued that residence-based taxation (RBT) is the superior model for how a government should tax individual income, which could explain why the doctrine is (almost) universally relied on outside the United States. The preference for RBT stems from the

Tax hikes are coming—in fact, they are already in force, assuming they are passed as proposed. The “it’s already effective” rule is designed to prevent selling to get in under the wire. Whether that strategy will work depends on how good your crystal ball is. Make no mistake, these tax hikes pack a punch. The

Finally, after many rounds of talks over many months, the London G7 summit, attended by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union as a guest, reached a historic agreement to create a common corporate tax rate of 15% for companies with international activities, which will always be

Today’s column addresses questions about whether any spousal benefit amount can be paid in addition to a retirement benefit, whether foreign pensions and be received in addition to Social Security benefits and the maximum benefit a person can receive based on their work record. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and

Negotiations over how to fund President Biden’s infrastructure plan have been complicated by the excesses of his first signature initiative, the American Rescue Plan Act. The law included $525 billion in assistance to state and local governments, many of which are now experiencing large budget surpluses. Republicans have proposed those funds be rescinded or repurposed

The drama that commenced just over a year ago when Kent Hovind and Paul John Hansen, as trustee for Creation Science Evangelism, filed a lawsuit in the US District Court Northern District of Florida has come to an unsatisfying though predictable conclusion.  Judge T. Kent Wetherell, II approving the recommendation of Magistrate Michael J. Frank

The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it has started sending out special tax refunds due to an estimated 13 million taxpayers who paid taxes on unemployment benefits when they filed their 2020 tax returns this spring. This week more than 2.8 million of these refunds will go out, and the rest will follow in

The May jobs report is out.  Does it show a healthy jobs recovery on track to a full recovery?  Or do we see a gap of 8 million fewer jobs compared to pre-pandemic levels, with high Black and Hispanic unemployment, and 1.7 million older workers pushed into premature retirement?  The answer is both. We need job quality, not just job growth.

For the handful of Tax Notes readers who don’t already subscribe to Us Weekly, let me acquaint you with a regular feature of that magazine: “Stars — They’re Just Like Us!” Using paparazzi photos, this column depicts celebrities performing mundane but relatable tasks. “They go to the post office!” the magazine trumpets with trademark enthusiasm. “They walk dogs!”