Taxes

There is a well-known saying, “the map is not the territory,” that metaphorically illustrates the differences between belief and reality. Through our perception of the world, we create a ‘map’ of what we perceive to be reality. However, reality, or the “territory”, exists independent of our subjective experiences. We see as far as getting to

             Your home or business is hit by a disaster – hurricane; fire; flood – you name it.  Homeowners and businesses often have insurance to protect against disaster – and many times the dealings with the insurance company will go like butter. This is great news. However, there are other times when an insurance company gives their client

In this episode of Tax Notes Talk, Tax Notes legal reporter Jennifer McLoughlin and contributing editor Kristen Parillo discuss two important tax cases heard by the Supreme Court: Americans for Prosperity Foundation and CIC Services.  This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. David Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International. This

Biden’s Fiscal Year 2022 Revenue Proposal aims to catch crypto tax evaders by reinforcing existing information reporting rules and information sharing agreements between jurisdictions.  What is Information Reporting?  Information reporting is the primary way that regulators like the IRS knows about your crypto activity. Cryptocurrency exchanges are required by law to collect your personal identification

Those of us who have been writing about the federal budgets for too long remember the sad history of presidents trotting out wildly optimistic economic assumptions to explain away growing deficits and debt. It was a tried-and-true way to hide their unwillingness to pay for ambitious spending with too little tax revenue. Former President Trump

Anticipating President Biden’s proposed increase in the capital gains tax rate, taxpayers are deciding whether and how to accelerate gains or how to defer them after an increase for as long as possible. The uncertainty around the timing and extent of the increase, as well as other important details that will need to be established during

Coming to a corporate balance sheet near you: multi-jurisdictional complexity. This week, in what must seem like a case of déjà vu, multinationals were once again put on notice that a tax reckoning is on its way. This time, it was the European Union gearing up to sharpen its pencils, as it introduced a plan

Tax collectors are coming after you as never before. This is bad news for a sustainable global economic recovery from the pandemic. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is proposing that countries around the world enact a global minimum corporate tax rate—and this idea is just for starters. Plans are being developed to have global tax

It is no secret that the IRS wants you to report your crypto gains. You can report crypto losses too, but the IRS cares less about that. The government still seems to think millions of transactions and dollars might still be unreported. You might think you won’t be caught, but the risks are growing. The

In a recent case, a bankruptcy court had to consider whether to allow a debtor in a Chapter 13 plan to make voluntary contributions to her retirement plan.  This is an interesting and important issue, particularly for retirement planning and retirement preparedness. Indeed, saving in an employer-sponsored retirement plan with its attendant benefits—such as employer-matching

Today’s column addresses questions about potential effects of having filed early, making sure your benefits are actually suspended even if a representative mistakenly says you can’t suspend them and potentially available benefits on an ex’s record. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning,

If your uncle, best friend or bank loans you money, is it taxable? Nope, not if it’s a real loan. But the loan or income distinction lands many people in trouble with the IRS. Besides, interest rates on risky loans like litigation funding and pre-IPO stock are high, and you might not be able to

All the evidence isn’t in, but it’s clear that many Americans accelerated their retirement plans during the pandemic and the rush to retire probably isn’t over. In September 2020, about 3.2 million more baby boomers were retired than a year earlier, according to a Pew Research Center report. In each of the previous four years,

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) was passed in December 2017, many residents on the east and west coast felt like they heard fingernails scrapping against a chalkboard. It officially become federal law that the maximum amount of state and local taxes (“SALT”) that could be included as a federal itemized deduction, and thereby

The White House will release a $6 trillion budget plan amid complaints from the GOP about wasteful spending and ruinous debt, but their guy also added to the national debt big time. As President Joe Biden releases his first detailed spending plan later today and continues to push for trillions in infrastructure spending, Republicans are

President Biden’s campaign promise never to raise taxes on those making $400,000 or less annually will inevitably conflict with his proposal to tax unrealized capital gains at death. My TPC colleague Rob McClelland and I estimate Biden’s new capital gains tax could exempt about 98 percent of decedents who made $400,000 or less, but about

The American Rescue Plan’s $350 billion in direct funding for state and local governments came with a caveat: Governments are not allowed to use that free money to pay for tax cuts. That had a lot of Republicans up in arms, claiming that President Biden had banned states outright from passing tax cuts. That’s not

Today’s column addresses questions about whether and when Social Security will fix problems with benefit calculation for those born in 1960, effects of the earnings test on survivor’s benefits and qualifying for divorced spousal benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc,

Starting on July 15, the IRS will begin distributing a monthly Child Tax Credit payment to at least 39 million families, or almost 90 percent of families with children. The agency has created a new online portal to help families claim the correct amount. But the portal may have no way for claimants to add

Tax bills almost always force Congress to think about how to define income, but President Biden’s campaign promise to never raise taxes for those making $400,000 or less puts the question front-and-center. If you are not a tax geek, you might be surprised to know there are many definitions of income. Some  are used to