Talking Tax

Before leaving for a two-week break, House Republican lawmakers adopted a Senate budget outline to expedite legislation to push through trillions of dollars in tax cuts, raise the debt ceiling, and slash billions in spending.Now comes the hard part where policy committees need to fill in the fine details. The Senate framework called for $1.5 trillion in new tax cuts, to enact policies like some proposed by President Donald Trump on the campaign trail.The Senate's use of a so-called current policy baseline wipes away, on paper, trillions of dollars expected to add to the deficit from extending the expiring parts of the GOP's 2017 tax law.The House is seen as taking the lead, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) publicly aiming for a Memorial Day deadline to get a bill on Trump's desk. In this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax federal editor Kim Dixon talks to congressional reporters Chris Cioffi and Zach Cohen about what to expect in the next work period.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Deep cuts to the IRS workforce mean the agency might have to rely more heavily on technology to keep up taxpayer services and enforcement. The IRS is set to lose 20,000 workers after the Trump administration's second deferred resignation offer. That's in addition to thousands who have already left or are on administrative leave. Barry Johnson, former IRS chief data and analytics officer, oversaw the rollout of artificial intelligence at the agency before his retirement in January. When he left, he said the IRS was piloting an AI tool to help employees search the Internal Revenue Code. The agency also used AI to improve taxpayer services, such as with chatbots, and to make enforcement more efficient.But the workforce cuts could hinder that progress, Johnson said."I'm especially concerned with proposed cuts in what we call the field staff, the folks who process tax returns and conduct audits," he said. "Because to the extent that we lose that subject matter expertise, our ability to train and validate AI applications will be diminished."In this episode of Talking Tax, Johnson talks to Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Schilling about the challenges of relying on technology with a shrunken staff, how the research division uses taxpayer data while upholding confidentiality, and what it means for the agency when top executives leave.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Michael Plowgian, a partner at KPMG and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, joins Will Morris, global tax policy leader at PwC. They dive into the Trump administration's departure from the OECD’s global tax deal and its implications for international finance. The discussion reveals how rising tariffs may prompt countries to favor bilateral agreements over multilateral cooperation. They dissect the complexities of digital services taxes and highlight the tangled web of U.S. policies impacting global tax negotiations.

The hard-charging effort led by billionaire Elon Musk to reshape the federal workforce at the IRS and other agencies might lead to lasting changes. But what it means for taxpayers still isn't fully realized. Some efforts to buy out or fire employees have been postponed until after the filing season ends in April, and are facing legal action. Ending taxpayer assistance center leases and reducing the number of taxpayer assistance staff who can answer phones will mean backsliding in improved service levels, former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson warns. On this episode of Talking Tax, Olson talks to Bloomberg Tax reporter Chris Cioffi about the potential for brain drain at the agency amid a wave of resignations and whether major upheaval might lead to an erosion in taxpayer trust. They also tackle the danger of taxpayer data privacy violations as Musk's Treasury Department team gains access to the department's payment systems.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Millions of US companies are off the hook when it comes to disclosing their beneficial owners' identities to the federal government, after the Trump administration announced it wouldn't enforce penalties for domestic entities under the Corporate Transparency Act. The Treasury Department's previous regulations had required about 30 million businesses operating in the US to disclose who directly or indirectly controlled them in reports to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. But in a pivot from the previous administration, the Treasury now says all US entities are exempt from reporting requirements.The move was the latest twist in a wave of litigation against the law, which some companies argue oversteps Congress's authority to regulate interstate commerce. Following a nationwide injunction blocking the CTA's enforcement in December 2024, businesses across the country faced whiplash as the law and the previous version of its implementing regulations were successively enjoined past the original January 2025 compliance deadline. But now, facing a narrower scope of which companies are obliged to comply under new rules, appeals courts must now grapple with whether newly exempt domestic companies retain their standing to sue.On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax audio producer David Schultz talks with Bloomberg Law reporter John Woolley about the year-long legal drama around the Corporate Transparency Act, how the Trump administration disrupted that litigation, and how the Treasury's policy changes could impact the fight against international financial crime.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

New York officials are in the final stage of the state’s budget process, following March 13 passage of the Assembly and Senate individual spending and revenue proposals for fiscal 2026. It's now up to a three-way negotiation between the Legislature's two chambers and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who has her own plans for a budget that’s likely to top $252 billion—including a host of tax changes that don’t completely align with what the Democratic-led lawmakers want.As in recent years, lawmakers have proposed raising taxes on the highest-income earners and corporations, which Hochul has rejected in the past. There are divergent approaches to how much to expand the state’s child tax credit. And the Senate wants to tailor the governor's idea of sending New Yorkers sales tax rebates—a salve to inflation—to just seniors rather than all taxpayers. Other issues include an expansion of New York's film tax credit program to benefit more independent movies and whether the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's funding needs will disrupt the various tax proposals.On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax state editor Benjamin Freed talks with New York correspondent Danielle Muoio Dunn and Bloomberg Government Albany correspondent Zach Williams about the budget process, the political stakes for Hochul ahead of her 2026 re-election campaign, and the odds that lawmakers wrap up the budget by their April 1 deadline—or at least the first night of Passover.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Tax departments at multinational companies are scrambling to keep up with the Trump administration's tariff announcements as the updates pile in day to day and sudden shifts complicate transfer pricing calculations.Tariffs raise companies' costs, and those can't always be passed on to consumers—meaning businesses have to choose where to allocate the costs in their supply chains. While the importing entity pays the tariffs, the company can adjust the transfer price to pass that cost to other, related entities. That can present opportunities to reduce the impact of tariffs—but also may lead to risks of audits from tax and customs agencies.And with so much unknown, it's become hard for companies to find tax certainty, said Summer Austin, partner at Baker McKenzie. Austin and Baker McKenzie partner Jennifer Revis talked to Bloomberg Tax reporter Caleb Harshberger about what the tariffs mean for transfer pricing and how companies should respond.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690

President Donald Trump's early executive order to end federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs upended at least one team in the Treasury Department.The Treasury Equity Hub, formed in 2021, evaluated how effective the department's policies and programs were at reaching all types of Americans. Removing this team could hurt further research into racial disparities in IRS enforcement, Treasury Equity Hub Director Diane Lim said. A 2023 high-profile study showed that Black taxpayers were disproportionately audited, a finding that led the IRS on a campaign to fix the problem, though the future of that work is unclear.Trump has launched a war on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts both in the federal government and the private sector, with mixed success. A federal judge blocked portions of his orders to end DEI programs because they could threaten free speech. Still, the corporate world has started rolling back diversity efforts in response to the administration's efforts.Lim and her team have been on administrative leave since the start of the new administration. She said she expects the team will receive layoff notices in the next wave of federal workforce reductions.In this episode of Talking Tax, Lim tells Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Schilling that ending DEI programs in the IRS and Treasury might have cascading impacts on the US tax system. For this tax filing season, it might mean the IRS has more trouble conducting outreach to underserved communities. But over the long term, if people feel the tax system is unfair, there could be more instances of people choosing to not file or to cheat on their taxes.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690

The US audit board has already been forced to revise its priorities as the Trump administration begins to reshape the federal government.The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board pulled an auditor disclosure rule that was set for SEC approval earlier this month. The audit board opted to delay finalizing another project that would expand how auditors consider the financial impact of their clients’ law violations days after Donald Trump's November election win.But deeper changes might be coming to the Enron-era regulator, which Congress designed to be an auditor watchdog.Republicans previously targeted the PCAOB through legislation and budget proposals that would have eliminated the independent regulator. Project 2025, considered a playbook for the second Trump administration, similarly called for the SEC to take over the board’s work.Any major changes in board leadership could usher in the third swing in priorities at the regulator since 2017.Ally Zimmerman is an associate professor of business administration at Florida State University and a former fellow at both the PCAOB and Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees the board’s work. In this episode of Talking Tax, Zimmerman spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone about the PCAOB's future and what auditors and the investors who depend on their work can expect in the coming months.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The podcast dives into the budget reconciliation process, helping Republicans push through tax code changes from a previous administration. It unpacks the complexities of the Byrd Rule and the challenges of extending expiring tax cuts. Additionally, the discussion touches on the Supreme Court's abolition of Chevron deference and its impact on tax legislation. With internal party divisions and political pressures at play, the path to enacting tax reforms appears fraught with obstacles, making for a captivating exploration of modern legislative dynamics.