Talking Tax

American workers are cashing in on their side hustle, picking up small jobs through Task Rabbit, driving for Lyft, or selling jewelry on Etsy. But they owe taxes on that work. And many of these self-employed workers are under-reporting their income to the IRS. It’s contributing to an estimated $450 billion tax gap.Annette Nellen, who directs the graduate tax program at San Jose State University, spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone about how the gig economy is changing the tax landscape and the challenges facing both workers and preparers.

The retail industry is grappling with a new set of tariffs on about $200 billion of goods coming in from China. David French, senior vice president of government relations for the National Retail Federation, said the tariffs first costs businesses and then hit consumers.French spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Siri Bulusu about how businesses are preparing to absorb some of those costs into various points of their supply chain, and how the costs are eroding the benefits the retail sector gained following tax reform.Listen and subscribe to Talking Tax from your mobile device: Via Apple Podcasts | Via Stitcher | Via Overcast| Via Spotify  

As countries across the globe debate whether to tax digital transactions, companies and their tax planners need to be prepared for a shifting tax landscape and a more transparent marketplace.  India was among the first to adopt a digital tax and France is currently debating a similar move. Mansi Seth, a tax lawyer with Dechert LLP, calls it a new era for business taxes.  Seth recently spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone about the significance of India’s tax on online advertising and the challenges to reach a global consensus on taxing rights.Listen and subscribe to Talking Tax from your mobile device: Via Apple Podcasts | Via Stitcher | Via Overcast| Via Spotify

Place-based tax incentives, like the opportunity zones program or new markets tax credit, have the potential to correct economic disparity between thriving cities and communities hungry for capital investment. The Opportunity Zones tax break under tax code Section 1400Z has attracted avid interest from investors since its creation in the 2017 tax overhaul. John Lettieri, president and CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, a Washington-based think tank behind the opportunity zones program, talks with reporter Siri Bulusu about previous tax incentive programs, access to the American Dream, and some of the more interesting business proposals that would make use of the tax perk.

It is a shared responsibility, said Cindy Fornelli, executive director of the Center for Audit Quality—the advocacy group stood up in the years after the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The law regulated the audit profession and was intended to restore trust in financial statements after the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals. Fornelli will retire this month after 12 years of working to build consensus among audit committees, regulators and auditors and preaching best practices. She spoke with reporter Amanda Iacone about the evolution of the profession.  Listen and subscribe to Talking Tax from your mobile device: Via Apple Podcasts | Via Stitcher | Via Overcast 

Opportunity zone investors should focus on working with state and local governments if they want to make the most of a new capital gains tax break.The break, under tax code Section 1400Z, has attracted avid interest from investors since its creation in the 2017 tax overhaul. In the latest episode of Talking Tax, Margaret Anadu, the head of Goldman Sachs’s Urban Investment Group, talks with Siri Bulusu about opportunity zones, her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, and how Goldman Sachs’s 19-year impact investing framework lines up with the new tax break.

When House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) asked for six years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns, he relied on a provision in the tax code.Tax code Section 6103 says that the chairman of Ways and Means, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and the chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation can seek tax returns. Stuart Gibson, a former tax litigator with the Department of Justice and now deputy editorial director of international tax at Bloomberg Tax, discussed the law’s purpose and its evolution.Hosts: Amanda Iacone and Siri Bulusu. Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.

Improving the country’s infrastructure system is just one of the possible places where Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin could align with congressional Democrats.An infrastructure plan is a priority in Congress, though there isn’t agreement on funding a package. Mnuchin appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee on March 14.Bloomberg Tax’s Kaustuv Basu and host Amanda Iacone talk about what to take away from the hearings, and what to watch for in the coming weeks, in this episode of Talking Tax.Host: Amanda Iacone.Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch, 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will make his first appearance before the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee on March 14 to talk about the administration’s fiscal year 2020 budget. Mnuchin will also appear before the Senate Finance panel the same day.A Ways and Means subcommittee will discuss temporary tax breaks at a hearing March 12. And while the tax-writing committees stay busy, chatter continues about the request for President Donald Trump's tax return. Bloomberg Tax’s Kaustuv Basu and Allyson Versprille talked to host Amanda Iacone about tax policy in Congress.Host: Amanda Iacone.Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch. 

Congressional steering committees have tapped lawmakers to join the tax-writing panels in the House and Senate, and those new additions are starting to set priorities. Bloomberg Tax’s Lydia O’Neal and Kaustuv Basu join host Amanda Iacone to discuss the news in Congress while negotiations to end the partial government shutdown have stalled. New Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has announced his intent to look into what authority he has to access President Donald Trump’s tax returns, though it is unclear whether he wants to release them or counter efforts by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.). Neal’s committee added new members, including six members of the Progressive Caucus who could shift the panel’s agenda leftward. Host: Amanda Iacone. Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.

In the third and final episode of The Over/Under, Richard Auxier of the Tax Policy Center gives Bloomberg Tax’s Ryan Prete a 2019 outlook. Next, Ryan discusses a newly released federal sports betting framework. Ryan then takes a look at betting totals from 2018 and gets a 2019 sports betting prediction from Ted Leonsis, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals. Host: Ryan Prete. Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.

Marc Bekerman joins Andrea L. Ben-Yosef in a two-part podcast about post-mortem estate planning. Marc is a solo practitioner in Long Island, New York, and an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School where he formerly served as the Associate Director of its Graduate Tax Program. Marc is also a member of the Estates Gifts and Trusts Advisory Board for Bloomberg BNA. It may be surprising to know that the death of a person does not end the ability to refine their estate plan. Marc discusses how estate planners can still take actions after a person’s death to maximize the benefit to the beneficiaries. Part 1 covers estate tax considerations, such as whether to elect alternate valuation of assets and where and when to deduct administration expenses. Part 2 will cover income tax planning opportunities.

Thousands of furloughed employees could soon be called back to join the Internal Revenue Service’s skeleton staff as the partial government shutdown enters its third week. The IRS is poised to release an updated contingency plan for the tax filing season, when more employees will be considered essential and allowed to work during a funding lapse. Bloomberg Tax’s Lydia O’Neal joins host Amanda Iacone to discuss the shutdown and the latest developments on Capitol Hill. Last week, the Senate Finance Committee added some new members, while House Democrats introduced legislation that would require presidential candidates to disclose 10 years of tax returns. In the coming days, watch out for a decision on who will fill open spots on the tax legislation-writing House Ways and Means Committee under new Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass). Host: Amanda Iacone. Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.

The 115th Congress is coming to a close and many of the tax items lawmakers hoped to address during lame-duck are still on the table. Bloomberg Tax’s Allyson Versprille discusses the measures that may get picked up again by the new Congress beginning Jan. 3 and other priorities that could garner bipartisan support in a split Congress. Host: Amanda Iacone. Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.

Kate Kraus joins Andrea L. Ben-Yosef to talk about the partnership audit regulations. Kate recently joined Allen Matkins as a tax partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office. There have been several rounds of proposed, temporary, and final regulations, with the most recent ones issued in August. Kate discusses some key issues to take into account under the new guidance, such as what happens if the partnership representative leaves, taking favorable adjustments into account, and other issues that tax practitioners are dealing with.

Software upgrades, bug fixes, and a global search for lease data were among the challenges United Parcel Service Inc. faced in preparing to adopt new accounting rules for leases. Beginning in January, public companies will have to report leased assets and liabilities on their balance sheet regardless of the length of the lease, under rules issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 2016. Susan Ward, chief accounting officer for UPS, sat down with Bloomberg Tax’s Amanda Iacone Dec. 11 at the American Institute of CPAs’ Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments in Washington to discuss implementation of the lease accounting standard. She also spoke about the use of robotics process automation in the accounting department, and why a historic change in the auditor’s report represents a “natural extension” of the company’s financial disclosures. Host: Amanda Iacone. Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.

In the second episode of The Over/Under, Bloomberg Tax’s Ryan Prete heads into a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on sports betting and discusses how lawmakers felt about regulation thereafter. Ryan also sits down with Dustin Gouker, managing editor at Legal Sports Report, a sports betting-centric online news source, to talk about a sports book error that resulted in an $80,000 payoff. Later, Ryan talks with Richard Auxier of the Tax Policy Center about what states can do to slow Congressional intervention. Host: Ryan Prete. Producer: RJ Jewell and Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.

The Center for Audit Quality is working on a quality indicator framework that could be used to compare accounting firms' performance. Setting quality metrics has long been discussed but until recently hadn't gained traction in the U.S. audit market. The center plans to issue its tool in early 2019. Cindy Fornelli, executive director of the Center for Audit Quality, spoke with Bloomberg Tax’s Amanda Iacone about why audit quality indicators are getting so much attention lately. She also discussed how camaraderie and diversity among the members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board could lead to better audit oversight, and the role U.S. regulators play in the ongoing audit debate in the UK.

Michael Hadley and Adam McMahon of Davis & Harman join Andrea L. Ben-Yosef to talk about the key provisions in the Family Savings Act, how it was influenced by RESA, and its prospects for enactment after the mid-term elections. With the Congress racing to stop a government shutdown, does Congress have the attention span to focus on bipartisan retirement plan reforms? For more information, see their Daily Tax Report Insight: Are We on the Verge of the Next Big Pension Bill? A Review of the House-Passed Family Savings Act.

Halliburton Co. is consulting with numerous external advisers to help understand the 2017 tax overhaul, especially provisions for which the IRS hasn’t issued final rules. The law cut Halliburton’s effective tax rate by 10 percent this year and gave the company a more level playing field against its foreign-based competition. Still, it presents continuing business-planning challenges as the new tax code provisions are fleshed out. Myrtle Jones, Halliburton’s senior vice president of tax, joins Bloomberg Tax to discuss how the company is reacting to regulatory challenges and how diversity can drive company innovation. Host: Siri Bulusu. Producer: Nicholas Anzalotta-Kynoch.