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The Multistate Tax Commission dates to the 1960s, yet the intergovernmental tax agency and its mission on behalf of state revenue departments are often not well understood. The map of tax laws and regulations across the 50 states would be much more complicated and inconsistent without the efforts of committed attorneys, auditors, and administrators working on behalf of the commission.
On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax senior reporter Michael J. Bologna discusses the MTC's goals and achievements with former general counsel Nancy Prosser, who retired Sept. 24. Prosser talks about the agency’s essential mission to promote uniform and consistent tax policies across the states, and assist taxpayers in achieving full compliance. She also stresses the MTC’s efforts to advocate for state and local sovereignty in the development of tax policy.
Prosser retired after four years as general counsel and a 16-year career in tax administration with the Texas Comptroller for Public Accounts, including two years as the Texas tax agency’s general counsel. In the interview, Prosser also talks about her career in state tax administration and her hopes for improved state tax uniformity going forward.
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The GOP's 2017 tax law—the biggest change in the US tax code in three decades—left a mammoth task for the IRS and Treasury Department.
It resulted in the Treasury and a severely underfunded IRS creating the blueprint for taxpayers and tax practitioners trying to follow the law, releasing over 200 pieces of formal guidance and more than 300 pieces of informal guidance.
Many of these provisions are set to expire next year and face an uncertain fate as the November election approaches with control of the House and Senate in play.
Dave Kautter, a partner at RSM US LLP, spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Slowey on his time as the Department of Treasury's assistant secretary for tax policy and acting IRS commissioner during that major tax code overhaul. He also spoke about the agencies' role in policy making and how they can prepare for changes in 2025—if at all.
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Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) likes to be prepared.
Schneider and fellow House Democrats are getting behind-the-scenes briefings that started this summer to bone up on their tax policy knowledge ahead of what's likely to become a big battle in 2025. The Illinois Democrat is a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and he's running to lead the influential New Democrat Coalition.
The hope, he said, is to find agreement on tax policy that will be permanent so lawmakers don't once again find themselves addressing provisions such as pieces of the 2017 GOP-led tax law that expire next year.
Schneider, a critic of the state and local tax deduction cap, said he's optimistic that lawmakers can come together on policy areas ranging from global tax to the child tax credit.
On this edition of Talking Tax podcast, Bloomberg Tax reporter Chris Cioffi talks with Schneider about the upcoming talks over expiring provisions in that 2017 tax overhaul and other priorities.
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Lawmakers return to Washington next week for the final sprint of legislating before the November elections, on the heels of a failed tax bill vote, and with an appropriations deadline fast approaching.
Congress will be under pressure in the next few weeks to reach a deal on government funding to avoid a shutdown on Sept. 30. The Democratic-controlled Senate is set to clash with the GOP House over whether to slash IRS funds or keep them steady, though with so little time left in session lawmakers will likely use a short-term continuing resolution to punt the fight.
Also up in the air is whether tax writers will come back to the negotiation table on the $78 billion bipartisan tax package that failed to clear a procedural vote in the Senate just before the August recess. Some lawmakers already are attempting to peel off parts of that tax package—including disaster tax relief and an expansion to the low-income housing tax credit—and it's unclear if those efforts will heat up in September or the lame-duck session.
On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax congressional reporters Chris Cioffi and Samantha Handler discuss the weeks ahead in Congress, and how lawmakers are preparing for the 2025 tax cliff.
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The market for clean energy tax credits has been booming, with demand and supply skyrocketing since the 2022 tax-and-climate law established new credits and launched a way for energy developers to easily sell those credits to investors.
A midyear report by the energy tax marketplace Crux forecasts that energy tax credit transfer deals could total between $20 billion and $25 billion this year, while financial services firm Evercore ISI estimates that more than $100 billion in transferable credits will be generated annually by 2030.
Still, risks remain around certain energy tax credits that have yet to see final rules from the Treasury Department, and 2025 will bring additional changes, including the launch of so-called "tech-neutral" credits that aren't tied to any one piece of technology.
On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporter Caleb Harshberger talks to Crux CEO Alfred Johnson and Hannah Hawkins, principal at KPMG, about how the new market for these credits is developing and what uncertainty remains.
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When Microsoft Corp. won a $94 million income tax refund from the California Office of Tax Appeals in February, it was considered one of the biggest victories for corporate taxpayers ever in California. Now it’s unclear if Microsoft will get that refund, or if other multinationals with similar claims will either. A law passed in June reversed the ruling upholding Microsoft’s refund, and the first two lawsuits challenging the reversal landed last week.
The intent of the new law (S.B. 167) is to avoid $1.3 billion in refunds to companies with similar claims pending for past tax years and $200 million a year in refunds going forward. The law does this by declaring that the California Franchise Tax Board’s position in Microsoft’s case pertaining to the tax treatment of income repatriated from abroad has been law since it issued a legal notice on the subject in 2006.
The newly filed lawsuits from the California Taxpayers Association and National Taxpayers Union make it unclear when the dust will settle.
On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax senior correspondent Laura Mahoney talks to Gina Rodriquez and Josh Booth, principals in the Sacramento office of global tax services firm Ryan LLC, about what the tax changes mean for other multinationals and for California.
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Ernst & Young LLP is developing a generative AI tool for tax professionals that's meant to automate repetitive data work and make tax planning more efficient.
The Big Four company is investing $1.4 billion into gen AI globally. Other Big Four firms have made similar pledges. The investments are in part a bet that the technology can fill in some gaps from the longstanding accounting shortage.
But implementing the technology in tax departments is difficult, in part because of how often policies change and the vast amount of data. Daren Campbell, leader of EY Americas Tax Technology and Transformation team, gave Bloomberg Tax an inside look at how his team seeks to overcome these challenges, where the technology is today, and what's next.
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Nearly 75% of cannabis businesses operate at a loss, and many in the industry point to a feature of the Internal Revenue Code as the reason why.
Cannabis companies are prohibited from deducting ordinary business expenses—like rent or payroll—from their federal taxes as long as marijuana remains under the most restrictive portion of the Controlled Substances Act.
That could change if marijuana is moved from Schedule I to Schedule III of the act, as the Biden administration has proposed. But in the meantime, 22 states plus Washington, D.C., have allowed medical or recreational cannabis businesses to take some deductions on their state returns, by decoupling their tax codes from Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code, which imposes the federal ban. Pennsylvania was the most recent to make that change with a state budget adopted last month.
In this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporters Angélica Serrano-Román and Owen Racer talk about their recent look into how states are increasingly decoupling their tax from 280E at the state level.
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Italian economist Pasquale Tridico, newly elected chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Tax Matters, has some fresh ideas to curb tax avoidance, which he says will be one of his top priorities.
His committee can't propose legislation or substantially alter it in any way. But the panel has gained influence and exposure over time. Set up soon after the Panama Papers leaks, the committee has become a forum for politicians, companies, researchers, and activists to share opinions and research. And increasingly, policymakers are tuning in.
That's the momentum Tridico wants to maintain. He proposes a European registry of assets to limit tax avoidance and to help improve the effectiveness of the global minimum corporate tax rules. Tridico says such a ledger could help ensure the minimum tax rules have more bite.
Bloomberg reporter Saim Saeed spoke with Tridico about these plans for the subcommittee, and how they can impact European tax policy.
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The corporate tax rate is coming up in nearly "every conversation" House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) has been at recently.
Miller is leading one of the ten House Ways and Means GOP tax teams, created to collect information and prepare for tax discussions in 2025, when much of the 2017 tax law expires. Miller's "Supply Chains" team is focusing on energy tax credits and the corporate tax rate, among other issues. This week members met with former Ways and Means Chair Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to discuss the 2017 tax law.
Brady and lawmakers reviewed why certain decisions were made in drafting the law, and what provisions may be worth looking into, Miller told Bloomberg Tax.
While the 21% corporate tax rate set by Republicans in 2017 does not sunset at the end of 2025, it's set to be a sticking point in negotiations no matter which party wins out in November. Some Republicans have floated raising the rate, and former President Donald Trump has proposed lowering it even further.
Bloomberg Tax reporter Samantha Handler spoke with Miller about discussions surrounding the corporate rate and other priorities of her tax team heading into 2025.
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The state tax gap—the difference between the true tax liabilities owed to a state and the amount voluntarily submitted to revenue agencies—is possibly the most stubborn and perplexing problem facing tax administrators. For decades, revenue commissioners have tried to close the gap through audits and enforcement sweeps, but the process is slow, costly, and uncertain.
Janette Lohman, a former director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, believes there is a way to collect more delinquent taxes faster, cheaper, and with less hostility: a strategy she describes as “prospective voluntary disclosure.” The states generally allow delinquent businesses to voluntarily come forward and pay their back taxes plus interest for a specified look-back period, but Lohman has proposed a process that allows delinquent taxpayers to submit their taxes on a going-forward basis without paying any back taxes or penalties.
On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax senior reporter Michael J. Bologna caught up with Lohman to discuss her efforts in Missouri to boost compliance using prospective voluntary disclosure. Lohman, a tax partner in the St. Louis office of Thompson Coburn LLP, recently presented her strategy during the annual meeting of the Federation of Tax Administrators.
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Training for CPAs must evolve to focus on the skills and experiences necessary to meet future market demands, the leader of the largest US accounting industry group said.
Barry Melancon, president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs, also defended a required fifth year of college for CPA candidates, saying current rules have achieved their purpose of elevating the role of accountants and turning out better-educated professionals.
Melancon, who is preparing to retire in December, spoke to Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone about ongoing efforts to restore what is now a shrinking pipeline of future accountants. Proposed reforms could soften the bite of the mandatory 150 college credit hours for CPAs to earn their license by offering alternatives such as employer-provided training or work-study programs.
He also discussed the role artificial intelligence could play in closing the talent gap and the impact of private equity investors as CPA firms look to keep pace with technology advancements.
—Produced by Matthew S. Schwartz.
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The new chief of the IRS criminal division wants America to know he’s hiring special agents, and they’re fulfilling their mission to investigate tax and financial crimes.
Guy Ficco started his new gig in April following an almost three-decade career at the agency. He comes into the position at the same time the IRS is flush with tens of billions in funding from the Democrats’ 2022 tax-and-climate law.
In fiscal year 2023, CI initiated more than 2,676 criminal investigations and identified over $37.1 billion from tax and financial crimes. The division has an 88.4% conviction rate on cases accepted for prosecution.
Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Slowey spoke with Ficco about how CI is handling its pandemic-era tax credit cases, what retention at the division looks like, and how the volume of investigation referrals has changed in the past couple of years.
Produced by Matthew S. Schwartz. -
The US Supreme Court brought a muted end last week to its biggest tax case in years, but the arguments that propelled the case are far from over, especially about what the court’s ruling could mean for future attempts to enact a wealth tax.
The court voted 7-2 to uphold the mandatory repatriation tax, a one-time tax on past foreign corporate profits. Washington state residents Charles and Kathleen Moore had challenged the constitutionality of the tax, arguing that it had forced them to pay $14,729 in taxes on the profits of an Indian company in which they’d invested even though the company’s profits were never distributed to them.
But the case’s significance went far beyond the Moores. Many had feared that striking down the tax not only would lead to billions of dollars in refunds to giant multinational companies that were the tax’s primary targets, but also would call into question a host of other taxes based on similar legal principles.
The Supreme Court said the tax was constitutional, and stressed that its ruling was narrow, with any outside issues left for another time. But that left unanswered questions about what the ruling could mean for any future wealth tax. Many such proposals would tax wealthy people’s “unrealized” gains on investments—profits that haven’t actually been distributed or monetized—which was the same issue over which the Moores questioned the repatriation tax.
And while the court’s ruling was narrow and set aside the realization issue, at least four of the nine justices supported the idea that income should have to be realized before it could be taxed, a signal that any future wealth tax could have a hard time passing legal muster before the court.
This edition of Talking Tax has two interviews with two very different perspectives on the Moore ruling. Bloomberg Tax senior reporter Michael Rapoport spoke first with Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the Tax Law Center at New York University’s law school, who wanted to see the tax upheld, and then with Andrew Grossman and Jeff Paravano, attorneys for BakerHostetler who represented the Moores and wanted to see the tax struck down.
Producer: Matthew S. Schwartz.
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Wealthy taxpayers are rushing to prepare in case a more generous exemption from the estate tax expires at the end of 2025 along with many of the individual tax cuts from the Republicans' 2017 tax overhaul.
In 2024, taxpayers are exempt from the 40% estate tax on the first $13.6 million of assets passed on to heirs.
But the exemption is set to fall by about half, practitioners estimate, if Congress doesn’t act to extend it.
People are moving money into different types of trusts now to take advantage of that higher exemption amount.
Deloitte Managing Director Laura Hinson spoke to Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Schilling about the most popular trust strategies and how to avoid “donor remorse.”
Hinson also explains how the Supreme Court's recent decision Connelly v. United States will affect estate planning.
Produced by Matthew S. Schwartz.
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Countries are under pressure to finalize and sign the text of the OECD's multilateral tax treaty, one part of the international tax deal known as Pillar One, by the end of June.
Several OECD officials, including Manal Corwin, director of the organization's Center for Tax Policy and Administration, have reported significant progress on finalizing the document. But negotiations have hit a snag.
The problem area is treatment of another part of Pillar One, known as Amount B, that's meant to simplify the way businesses value intercompany marketing and distribution transactions. The US and India, in particular, have butted heads over whether the measure should be mandatory.
In this week's episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporter Lauren Vella sits down with Dr. Santiago Gomez Cifuentes, head of congressional affairs at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, to talk about progress made on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-led deal and what's holding back the completion of Pillar One.
Gomez Cifuentes is in close contact with the Colombian delegation to the OECD, and serves as a go-between representing Colombian interests in conversations with US lawmakers. He spoke with Bloomberg Tax on his own behalf and doesn't represent the official position of the Colombian government.
They also talk about Colombia's interest in the US Inflation Reduction Act and tax incentives that could boost mineral exports from Latin American countries.
Produced by Matthew S. Schwartz. -
Six months into implementation of the new global corporate minimum tax, countries are racing to craft incentives to attract and maintain outside investment. Companies, too, are pouring resources into complying with the tax.
The tax took effect in January in dozens of countries across the globe, with a goal of "raising the floor" tax rate to 15% in every country that a multinational company operates in, to reduce profit shifting to low-tax countries.
In this podcast episode, Bloomberg Tax reporter Lauren Vella talks through all the ways companies and countries are responding to the new global tax regime, and what new guidance companies can expect in the future.
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Talking Tax is on hiatus for a bit while we create some great new episodes for you. Until then, we're pleased to offer a special presentation of our ABA Silver Gavel award-winning series, UnCommon Law.
Generative AI tools are already promising to change the world. Systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT can answer complex questions, write poems and code, and even mimic famous authors with uncanny accuracy. But in using copyrighted materials to train these powerful AI products, are AI companies infringing the rights of untold creators?
This season on UnCommon Law, we'll explore the intersection between artificial intelligence and the law. Episode one examines how large language models actually ingest and learn from billions of online data points, including copyrighted works. And we explore the lawsuits filed by creators who claim their copyrights were exploited without permission to feed the data-hungry algorithms powering tools like ChatGPT.
If you like this episode and want to hear part 2, visit news.bloomberglaw.com/podcasts, or search for UnCommon Law in your podcast app.
Guests:
Matthew Butterick, founder at Butterick Law, and co-counsel with the Joseph Saveri Law Firm on class-action lawsuits against OpenAI and others
Isaiah Poritz, technology reporter for Bloomberg Law
James Grimmelmann, professor of digital and information law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School -
The new 15% global minimum tax that took effect this year is turning out to be compliance beast.
The tax, which is part of an international tax deal agreed to by more than 140 countries in 2021, contains a slew of new technical terms, complex rules, and hundreds of pages of administrative guidance.
Now, some of the largest accounting firms in the world have been tasked with interpreting these rules, educating their clients, and building complex data systems to help multinational companies calculate their global minimum tax bills.
In this week's episode of "Talking Tax," reporter Lauren Vella sits down with Danyle Ordway, principal of tax technology and data analytics at Ernst & Young LLP, to talk about how the firm is helping clients adapt to the new levy.
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A looming decision from the US Supreme Court on federal agency rulemaking power is fueling chatter on just how much it could upend the regulatory process at these agencies.
Justices in January heard two cases, Relentless v. Dept. of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which challenge the decades-old landmark administrative principle known as the Chevron doctrine saying that federal courts should defer to agency interpretation when a law is vague.
Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Slowey spoke with Kristin Hickman, a University of Minnesota law professor who specializes in tax and administrative issues, on the background of Chevron in the tax context and how the Treasury Department and the IRS are expected to be largely insulated from the ruling, no matter the outcome.
Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690. - Visa fler
