Talking Tax

The stimulus bill signed by President Trump was significant not just for its size but also because many lawmakers inserted tax items into the bill they'd been wanting for some time to become law. On the latest episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, host Amanda Iacone talks with Capitol Hill reporter Kaustuv Basu about what was in this bill and about why it will likely be far from the last financial aid package to come out of Congress. Kaustuv also speaks about the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol building by pro-Trump rioters and about what it was like as a Capitol Hill reporter to watch this take place.

The economic fallout from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will shape the world of taxes at the international, federal, and state levels in the coming year. That's according to three tax attorneys we spoke to about what to expect in 2021. For this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, reporter Jeff Leon talks to these attorneys about how jurisdictions across the globe will respond to the continuing economic downturn and how a new presidential administration in the U.S. will—or will not—make things different in 2021.

Who says taxes are boring? Today on a holiday edition of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, we bring you a few of the more humorous tax disputes of this year. Bloomberg Tax reporter Hamza Ali joins us to talk about a man who saved on his tax bill by mathematically proving he was a terrible gambler, a juice cleanse that may or may not be medicinal, and an extraordinarily costly instance of a postal delay.

Despite historic and decisive victories at the Supreme Court, same-sex couples are still not fully equal with different-sex couples in the eyes of the U.S. tax code. That’s the conclusion of University of Pittsburgh law professor Anthony Infanti, who specializes in the intersection of tax policy and gender and sexuality. Infanti speaks with Bloomberg’s Yuri Nagano on our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, about all of the tax benefits that same-sex couples still can’t take advantage of and about just how gendered the language of the tax code really is.

Teslas and other electric vehicles may be helping to solve the problem of climate change—but they’re also creating a new problem for state and federal transportation budgets. That’s because these budgets are funded largely from revenue generated by taxes on gasoline. States are trying to figure out how to fund new roads or maintain existing ones if gas-fueled cars are getting phased out. Sahas Katta, the CEO of an automobile tech startup who is working with several states on developing new ways to tax vehicle use, spoke to Bloomberg Tax correspondent Michael Bologna for the latest episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax.

The Supreme Court this week heard its biggest tax case of this term and, based on how the oral argument went, the IRS could be headed for a significant loss. On this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, host Jeffrey Leon talks to Bloomberg Tax reporter Aysha Bagchi, who is covering the case, CIC Services v. IRS. She says some of the justices made comments suggesting they were inclined to rule against the IRS and thereby limit its ability to avoid judicial review of a reporting requirement before a taxpayer has violated the requirement and been given a penalty. Some argue that could make it a lot harder for the IRS to go after tax shelters, while others say it would help ensure that such requirements are legally valid.

Despite decades of work to educate more Black lawyers, the percentage of Black associates and partners in firms across the U.S. remain very low, and well below those of other professional careers. Big Law firms across the board are ramping up social justice efforts as the nation engages in a renewed dialogue on race and equality. But some have accused firms of using minorities as “diversity props” to impress clients and misrepresent their inclusiveness to potential employees. So what are law firms doing to fix their lack of diversity? Hosts Adam Allington and Lisa Helem, along with reporters Ayanna Alexander, Ruiqi Chen, and Meghan Tribe, interviewed lawyers across the industry, from corporate general counsels to top Am Law 200 lawyers to current law students, each sharing their experience navigating the legal space as a person of color. We try to answer what law firms are doing to recruit more diverse classes of lawyers, and how they are addressing barriers to entry for Black lawyers.

Research from former IRS economist Kim Bloomquist made waves last year when he found that the agency's audits of low-wage Earned Income Tax Credit filers has been going up while audits of high-income earners have been going down. Bloomquist joins us on our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, to discuss why this has been happening and how—or even whether—the Biden administration will attempt to tackle this problem.

Businesses all across the country have been shutdown for days, weeks, or even months at a time due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many assumed their insurance policies would help them defray some of their lost revenue. But those assumptions were, by and large, wrong. In this special audio documentary, “Business, Interrupted” we look at why insurers denied the claims of their shuttered policyholders. A team of reporters from Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax look into the so-called “virus exclusion” clauses, that insurers quietly inserted into many of their business policies, and how those clauses are now creating strife between insurers and businesses. We hear from several small business owners across the country about the shock they felt when their pandemic claims were denied, in some cases within hours after filing. We also hear from regulators and lawmakers about whether they will force insurers to retroactively honor these claims, a possibility that insurers view as an existential threat to their entire indus

President-elect Biden's plans to reshape tax policy, including the roll back of several provisions from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, may be partially or fully thwarted if Republicans hold onto the Senate. That's according Colin Wilhelm, a Bloomberg Tax reporter who covers Capitol Hill. Colin joins host Amanda Iacone on our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, to talk about what a Biden administration would try to do on taxes and whether it can succeed. Colin also talks about the shortlist of potential nominees to head the Treasury Department and why it's likely we'll see the U.S.'s first female Treasury Secretary next year.

A series of auditing scandals in the U.K. made it seem like a fait accompli that we'd see major legislation forcing auditors to be more independent. But 2020's unending string of crises means Parliament has been unable to devote attention to this difficult issue. On this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, host Amanda Iacone speak with Bloomberg Tax U.K. correspondent, Michael Kapoor, about why the push to overhaul the British auditing industry is stalling and about what this means for the industry's handful of big firms.

The NCAA used oppose the legalization of sports betting. But, now that it's lost that fight at the Supreme Court, the collegiate athletic association has decided to cash in on the trend. On this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, host Jeff Leon talks with reporter Sam McQuillan about the NCAA's decision to allow colleges to enter into endorsement deals with sports betting companies. Sam also talks about about how the schools' tax exempt statues makes these types of deals with gambling companies tricky to hash out.

The 137 countries trying to forge a global approach to taxing multinational companies are behind schedule, hobbled by the pandemic and by disagreements about dozens of issues large and small. And the U.S., home of many corporate giants, has objections.On this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, host Amanda Iacone talks with Bloomberg Tax reporter Isabel Gottlieb about why these international negotiations are flailing and what could happens as a result if they collapse altogether.

New rules for corporate auditors are on their way, but many of these auditing firms are worried that international standards for how firms assess their risk will diverge from those in the U.S., leaving them to cope with a patchwork quilt of do's and don'ts. On this episode of Talking Tax, host Amanda Iacone talks with Tom Seidenstein, chair of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. Tom explains how the IAASB developed its new auditing standards and how it tried to harmonize them as much as possible with its U.S. counterpart.

The Supreme Court is back in session, and is set to consider a tax case that could lead to more scrutiny of Treasury actions. CIC Services, LLC v. IRS is scheduled for arguments Dec. 1. The justices will consider whether a Civil War-era law prohibits courts from ruling on a reporting requirement at issue, before the plaintiff has actually been penalized. Kristin Hickman, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in tax and administrative law, says this case, along with a similar one on the court’s docket for this fall, could give the judicial branch a much more prominent role in taxation than it has ever had. (Hickman has written amicus briefs in support of CIC Services.) She speaks with host Jeff Leon for the latest episode of Talking Tax, our weekly tax podcast.

One of the main takeaways from The New York Times' bombshell report unveiling the President's tax returns is that the line between his business and personal filings is nearly nonexistent. However, Bloomberg News' Laura Davison says that's pretty common for people like Donald Trump who are in the real estate and development business and own their own closely held family business. On today's episode of Talking Tax, Laura speaks with host Amanda Iacone about Trump's taxes and about how professionals in the tax field are reacting to the newest revelation.

It seems no one is really happy with the IRS' rules governing the professional conduct of tax professionals: not the courts, not tax professionals, and not even the IRS itself. On today's episode of Talking Tax, host Jeff Leon speaks with two people who have special insight into the agency's efforts to rewrite its ethics rules: a tax practitioner who has been following this issue for years, and a tax advisory who fought back against an IRS ethics charge—and won.

On this episode of Talking Tax, we highlight a new project that examines the anxieties and uncertainties of tax professionals around the billions of dollars in coronavirus relief funding that Congress has allocated. Host Jeff Leon speaks with Bloomberg Industry Group deputy team leaders Colleen Murphy and Jay-Anne Casuga about the questions they received from subscribers and about what trends they were able to glean from these queries. Click here to read more from our multi-part series about navigating virus aid and minimizing risk.

On this episode of Talking Tax, we speak with former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson about some of the many tax credits that small businesses may not be aware they can claim. For example, Everson says businesses that are operating differently or making new products due to the coronavirus pandemic may be eligible to receive a research and development tax credit. Everson also weighs in on how his former agency is struggling to respond to the mountains of correspondence it has received since the pandemic started and also tells host Amanda Iacone that the IRS' struggles here have affected him personally.

On this week's episode of Talking Tax, we hear from public policy researcher Donnie Charleston with the group E Pluribus Unum about how the tax system in America provides white taxpayers with benefits people of color often don't or can't enjoy. Charleston speaks with Bloomberg Tax's Yuri Nagano about how the racial history of real estate in the U.S. is still causing great inequality today in the way property taxes are levied and collected.