Talking Tax

The new CEO of Deloitte's tax practice is grappling with many of the same challenges as the Big Four firm's clients: rapid shifts in how tax practitioners work thanks to artificial intelligence, a shortage of skilled staff, and reforms that will impose a new global minimum tax. Companies are starting to get their arms around the new rules that will impose a 15% global minimum tax and whether they should tackle implementation in-house or seek outside help, said Carin Giuliante, chair and CEO of Deloitte Tax LLP. Giuliante, the first woman to lead the firm’s US tax practice, took the helm in June and pledged to provide a “digital experience” to clients and to invest in training and career development for the firm’s professionals. She spoke to Bloomberg Tax & Accounting senior reporter Amanda Iacone about new Internal Revenue Service regulations for cryptocurrency assets, how artificial intelligence is reshaping the tax practice, and the firm’s ongoing commitment to diversify and support its workforce. Do you ha

Sports betting is in more states than ever, with new gamblers every day wagering in person and over the internet. And the new NFL season is expected to drive up tax revenue even more in the 30 states—plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.—that have legalized sports betting since a 2018 US Supreme Court ruling overturning a federal ban. States collected an estimated $3.62 billion in direct gaming taxes generated in the second quarter, a 9.6% increase over the second quarter of 2022, according to a recent report from the American Gaming Association. While most states impose taxes ranging from 10% to 15%, some, like New York, take as much as 51% from sportsbooks. SportsHandle senior analyst Chris Altruda spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Angélica Serrano-Román about the approaches states have taken to taxing sports betting and those allowing operators to deduct so-called "free bets," which some states are starting to limit. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail

Congress' tax writers return to Capitol Hill with several priorities that remain unaddressed, as September shapes up to be a busy month with tax policy firmly in the mix. On the second part of a two-part podcast series looking at Congress as it returns from its August recess, we discuss the status of House Republicans' tax package and what would have to happen to get a bipartisan pact extending business tax breaks and enhancing the child tax credit. We also talk about GOP lawmakers' trip to Europe to meet with financial officials from the OECD and Germany, and the progress being made on a bipartisan Taiwan tax bill in September. Host David Schultz breaks down all this and more with Bloomberg Tax Congress reporters Chris Cioffi and Samantha Handler, running through the tax items on lawmakers' agenda. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

A year ago, the tax world was pleasantly surprised when Congress granted the chronically underfunded IRS an $80 billion windfall in the Inflation Reduction Act. Now that surprise is turning into dismay among some as Congress starts to claw back that money bit by bit. President Joe Biden agreed to reallocate about a quarter of that funding as a part of this spring's debt ceiling deal. And now Republican appropriators on Capitol Hill are proposing to take away even more of the money. On the first part of a two-part podcast series looking at Congress as it returns from its August recess, we sort out what this means with Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and former unit chief for tax policy studies at the Congressional Budget Office. She spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Chris Cioffi about just how much the IRS could lose through this year's appropriations process and about what that would mean for the agency's grand modernization plans. Do you have feedback on this episod

Artificial intelligence has been helping companies with their taxes for a while—and now it’s on to the next stage. Companies have been using AI to automate and speed up the grunt work involved in their tax filings and tax compliance for some time. With the recent advance into “generative” AI—the type that can generate new content after being "trained" on mountains of data—the technology is being democratized, and put into the hands of tax professionals more broadly. It’s becoming almost like a “co-pilot” that’s helping practitioners do their jobs better, said Rema Serafi, national managing principal for tax at KPMG LLP. On this week’s episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax senior reporter Michael Rapoport speaks with Serafi on the future of AI and tax, including how AI will let companies tell their tax stories better, help with their tax planning, and navigate the ever-more-complex world of global tax rules. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-36

July was a big month for the OECD, marking its release of a tranche of documents detailing progress on the global tax deal agreed to by more than 130 countries in 2021. The agreement includes reallocation of the residual profits of large multinational companies to market jurisdictions, known as Pillar One, and a 15% global minimum tax, known as Pillar Two. On this week’s episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporter Lauren Vella speaks with Manal Corwin, director of the OECD's Center for Tax Policy and Administration, about nuances of the latest guidance and next steps to move the deal forward. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Demand from clean energy and corporate clients looking to secure their share of credits from the tax-and-climate law is helping boost tax and law firms' footprints. The Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offers tax incentives to accelerate the US's transition into renewable energy. The tax credits from the law give companies and investors stability for at least the next 10 years. "It really put a stamp of approval on these transaction structures and the interest of the administration in exploring and facilitating the growth of renewable energy project development," Alexander Leff, partner at international law firm Clifford Chance, said in an interview. Those looking to benefit from those tax credits are leaning on these firms as the IRS and Treasury Department continue to release guidance on the law's provisions. On this week's episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporters Pavithra Rajesh and Erin Slowey talk with Leff about the wider implications of these clean energy provisions. He also d

The IRS rocked the name, image, and likeness industry after it released a memo saying that many organizations that fund college athletes won't be tax-exempt. The NCAA allows for college athletes and recruits to be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness—also known as NIL. NIL collectives were formed, often separate from the university, as a way to help fund and facilitate deals for athletes. Many of these collectives found creative ways, including vying for tax-exempt status, to attract donors. Ayden Syal, CEO and co-founder of MOGL, joins Bloomberg Tax's Erin Slowey on this week's episode of Talking Tax to break down the impact of the recent IRS decision and what it means for his company—a marketplace and software provider for student-athletes, universities, brands, and NIL collectives. Syal also talks about how his company helps college athletes during filing season and how he sees the NIL industry transforming over the next couple of years. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking

Governments landed agreement on some of the global tax deal's biggest open issues earlier this month. But major political questions remain. The issues will play out over the coming years in the US and around the world, said Bob Stack, who was the Treasury Department's OECD tax negotiator under the Obama administration and is now a managing director at Deloitte. In a conversation with Bloomberg Tax's Isabel Gottlieb, Stack talked about the recent agreement by the negotiating governments that will shield US companies' US income from foreign minimum tax for an extra year, and what that means for future global tax legislation in the US Congress. Stack also talked about prospects for the agreed, conditional freeze on new digital services taxes during remaining negotiations over implementation of Amount A, the global deal's profit reallocation plan. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The US Senate passed a long-stalled tax treaty with Chile last month, overcoming a dispute between Republicans and the Treasury Department over treatment of foreign tax credits. Business groups had been pushing for the measure to strengthen economic ties with the South American country and to allow companies to avoid double taxation. Chile is one of the biggest producers of lithium, a key element in batteries and other technology. On this week’s episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporter Chris Cioffi talks with Business Roundtable Vice President for Tax and Fiscal Policy Catherine Schultz about a range of topics, including the Chile tax treaty and the fate of other treaties pending in the Senate. They also discuss Republican concerns that emerged in this Congress over double taxation and how lawmakers resolved the issue, at least temporarily, in the treaty. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Unverified claims that the IRS plans to hire a horde of weapon-carrying agents are putting agency employees at risk, said Tony Reardon, longtime leader of the National Treasury Employees Union. "It places them squarely in danger," Reardon said, referring to charges from Republican politicians that thousands of armed agents would soon be probing Americans’ finances as a result of tax-and-climate law funds. Reardon, who's worked at NTEU for more than three decades and was first elected national union president in 2015, is set to retire in August. NTEU represents about 65,000 IRS employees as well as workers at dozens of other departments and agencies. On this week's episode of Talking Tax, he talks with Bloomberg Tax reporter Naomi Jagoda about a range of topics, including how things have changed for IRS employees over the years and how the IRS can improve recruitment and retention. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The IRS has sounded the alarm multiple times over the past year about widespread scams associated with the employee retention credit—a pandemic-era tax incentive meant to encourage businesses to retain their employees during the worst of the Covid-19 crisis. Still, advertisements by third-party bad actors promoting the credit persisted, and faulty employee retention credit claims became so prevalent that in March, the IRS put the employee retention credit on its "Dirty Dozen" list of scams. The issue of false or incorrectly claimed credits has begun to bleed into the world of mergers and acquisitions, prolonging deals and creating more hours of due diligence work. On this week's episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporter Lauren Vella sits down with Jenn McCabe, a partner at Armanino LLP, to hear about the fallout from what was meant as a pandemic rescue plan. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Small family vineyards throughout France face an uncertain future as the cost to transfer estates within a family climb under a complicated system of inheritance taxation and rising property values from sales to foreign or institutional investors. The costs can be so great that some can’t pay the inheritance tax without running up long-term debt or selling off a portion of their estate. French lawmakers are considering ways to help reduce the tax burden for family vineyards, which number just 7,000 today. On this week’s episode of our podcast, Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax correspondent Shaun Courtney talks about her reporting into the inheritance tax challenges facing France's small family-owned vineyards. She traveled to Champagne to visit a vineyard owned by Sophie Moussié, the fifth generation in her family to run the estate. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Most of the banks that failed or came close to it this spring had one thing in common: They had recently received a clean bill of health from their auditor, KPMG. This development has caused major problems for the Big Four auditing firm and has shareholders, regulators, and even lawmakers asking KPMG tough questions. On this week's episode of our podcast, Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone talks about her reporting into KPMG's troubles and why this newest accounting scandal, just one of many over the past two decades, has stirred up concern for many in the profession. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The OECD's global tax deal is approaching a milestone: The organization expects to see the release this summer of major remaining pieces of the agreement that have been under negotiation. But throughout the process, many developing countries have felt their concerns weren't sufficiently addressed, said Marlene Nembhard-Parker, a senior tax official in Jamaica who is also co-chair of the Inclusive Framework of 143 countries working on the global tax agreement. Meanwhile, the United Nations also has a new international tax effort in the works. That project isn't intended to duplicate or undermine the OECD's work, she said, but to "address the issues of legitimacy as to who is responsible for setting global tax rules." On this week's Talking Tax, Nembhard-Parker speaks about developing countries' perspective on the agenda and outcomes of the OECD and UN work, and why the commitment from governments to reach agreement on Pillar One creates a sense of "cautious optimism." Nembhard-Parker's remarks are part of a pr

Minnesota lawmakers just finished a historic legislative session that achieved something rarely seen in the state tax arena—a budget featuring both the biggest tax cut and the biggest tax hike in state history. The resulting tax overhaul measure includes $3 billion in tax relief from one-time refunds, tax credits, and a tax waiver on most Social Security income. But it also raises $1 billion through a tax on the earnings of foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations and a new levy on individuals with investment income over $1 million. The state's lawmakers also made headlines for first passing and then rescinding a plan to calculate corporations' state income taxes on the basis of their worldwide income. The controversial plan would have made Minnesota the only state to abandon “water’s edge” rules, which permit businesses to exclude foreign affiliates’ income when they file their state income tax returns. On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax senior reporter Michael J. Bologna discusses this

What does it mean to be a good tax leader, as an in-house tax professional or as a tax adviser who wants to make the tax functions of your clients better? How do you build a great team? Bloomberg Tax Insights editor Rebecca Baker sat down with Jared Dunkin, the vice president of tax and senior tax counsel at FTI Consulting, and Dunkin's mentor and former boss, Todd Davis, the executive vice president and senior tax counsel for Warner Bros. Discovery, to find some answers to these questions. Dunkin and Davis discuss how to handle the ambiguity of tax when corporate executives—their bosses—demand certainty, how to wage the war for talent, and how to set priorities for their tax teams, particularly when it comes to cross-border tax work. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Note: This episode originally aired May 19, 2022. Automation tools increasingly used by seasoned tax professionals are helping to take some of the pain and manual labor out of routine compliance work. That futuristic tech goes beyond robotics process automation and can link together the many programs and platforms that accountants rely on everyday. Those building blocks can automate every step in the tax process from onboarding clients to tax return delivery, according to John McGowan, the CEO of Hubsync and former chief information officer for two Big Four tax practices. On this episode of Talking Tax, McGowan talks to Bloomberg Tax about the challenges that firms face in adopting new ways of working and how it can not only help get work done faster but could make CPA firms more attractive to job candidates and clients alike. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Puerto Rico lawmakers say a tax plan backed by Gov. Pedro Pierluisi still falls short of being the long-sought tax overhaul the island desperately needs. After years of modifications, Puerto Rico still has one of the most complex tax systems in the US, with over 400 tax breaks, deductions, credits, and exemptions. The Democratic governor presented a proposal earlier this year that would lower income taxes for both individuals and corporations and simplify the US territory's tax code. The Senate says it’s working on a counter-proposal but has provided few details. Bloomberg Tax’s Angélica Serrano-Román and Bloomberg News’ Jim Wyss sat down with Kenneth Rivera Robles, a tax partner at Galíndez LLC and treasurer of the board for Puerto Rico's Manufacturers Association, Sen. Juan Zaragoza Gómez, president of the Puerto Rico Senate’s finance committee, and Ella Woger-Nieves, the CEO of Invest Puerto Rico. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

New IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has a lot on his plate. He is tasked with effectively spending the IRS's new $80 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funds and ensuring the agency has smooth tax-filing seasons, while also needing to respond to questions and concerns from Congress. On this episode of Talking Tax, Werfel talks to Bloomberg Tax's Naomi Jagoda in his first podcast interview since his confirmation in March. Werfel talks about his goals for his first six months on the job, how he plans to keep Congress informed about the agency's work, how he plans to improve trust in the agency, and more. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.