Tax Chats

Send us a textDespite our best efforts to inform the world about the perils of taxing financial statement income, the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax based on financial accounting income passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Jeff and Scott discuss the adjustments to financial accounting income that are part of the act, and describe how these adjustments will result in a situation where some firms will report high profits to shareholders and low or no tax, despite the minimum tax.

Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss a program called Tax Inspectors Without Borders with Rusudan Kemularia, Head of Tax Inspectors Without Borders. The program is part of the OECD and is connected with the OECD's BEPS as part of an effort to help provide developing countries with the tools necessary to enforce tax laws in the complex international tax arena.

Send us a textJeff and Scott discuss some interesting tax-related observations Jeff made while visiting Oxford University and Mannheim University in England and Germany.

Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the $80 billion in additional funding that has been allocated to the IRS as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA. They also discuss the fact that the IRS owns and uses a variety of guns, ammunition, etc. They break down some of the fear-mongering headlines that have recently been in the press.

Send us a textIn this special episode, we compile several recordings that we have made over the past year related to the proposed alternative minimum tax on financial accounting earnings. The recordings are very much related to two op-ed articles Scott published in the Wall Street Journal, found here:Don’t Let Warren Politicize Accounting - WSJElizabeth Warren’s War on Accounting - WSJJeff has also written on the topic, including this letter to congress and an accompanying WSJ article that goes along with it:Letter to CongressAccounting Experts Ask Congress to Change Proposal on Minimum Corporate Tax - WSJThis episode is longer than usual, but we believe the information is worth consuming.

Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss "carried interest" with Vic Fleischer, Professor of Law at UC Irvine. Carried interest is a special type of income that is taxed at favored capital gains tax rates, and is often associated with high earning individuals who manage private equity partnerships. One prominent example of someone who had significant income from carried interest was former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. 

Send us a textScott and Jeff learn from Ashley Jackson how the Taliban create a tax. We discuss how the tax system evolved initially to generate revenue to fund the Taliban objectives, until it became a symbol of its legitimacy. We talk about how the tax system evolved from a system of forced extractions to the point where customer support numbers became available to report mistreatment.

Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the creation of schedule M3 with Lillian Mills, Dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Lil was instrumental in the creation of schedule M-3, which is form filed with the IRS that reconciles taxable income to financial accounting income.  We talk about the opportunities that exist for academics, policymakers, and regulators to work together, and the unique environment that led to the creation of the M3. We also discuss some recent policy proposals that would impose tax on financial accounting income.

Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss some of the prominent arguments against progressive taxation.

Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the tax status of churches in the U.S. with Lloyd Mayer, Professor of Law at Notre Dame University.  We discuss the basics of tax law as it pertains to Churches. We also discuss special tax benefits that apply to ministers and other church employees. We consider the tradeoffs that exist between providing churches with tax benefits and relying on them to provide certain types of public goods and services vs taxing churches and relying on the government to provide those goods and services.