Talking Tax

The $80 billion in new funding the IRS will get over the next decade offers a chance "to bring US tax administration into the 21st century," according to National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins.Collins leads the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent office within the agency that provides taxpayer assistance. She's written multiple blog posts about modernization efforts and sent a report to Congress discussing her vision for a revamped, paperless tax enforcement agency.On this episode of Talking Tax, Collins speaks with Bloomberg Tax reporter Aysha Bagchi about key recommendations for how the agency can improve taxpayer services using the additional funding authorized by the Biden administration's sweeping tax-and-climate bill.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The IRS and Treasury pushed back the effective date for brokers forced to report client transactions to the IRS, giving the cryptocurrency industry some relief as they wait for more guidance.There are still a lot of unknowns about how to report and what exactly is required—answers the industry anticipates in new guidance.On this episode of our Talking Tax podcast, Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Slowey speaks with Deloitte's Jonathan Cutler, a senior manager, and Rob Massey, global and US tax blockchain and digital assets leader, about the crypto reporting landscape here in the US.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

All eyes are on the IRS in 2023, as the cash-strapped agency is finally getting an $80 billion infusion, with potential big implications for the tax world.Bolstered by the additional multiyear funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, the agency plans to upgrade its outdated systems, staff up, and take bolder steps toward enforcement, aiming largely at big companies and high-wealth taxpayers.Bloomberg Tax reporter Jeff Leon talks about the prospects with Niles Elber, a tax professional at Caplin & Drysdale who has been following the developments closely. The IRS has a tall order, Elber says. He talks about how the agency might deploy the funds, and the biggest areas of need, from hiring to enforcement.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Congress was busy on tax policy in 2022, and that means the IRS will have work to do this year. The agency has issued some guidance clarifying the Inflation Reduction Act's tax provisions, but it has lots more that needs to get out in the coming weeks and months.On this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, we hear about the big-ticket items the IRS needs to get out the door from three Bloomberg Tax reporters: Erin Slowey, Lauren Vella, and Naomi Jagoda. We also discuss the IRS's plans to spend the nearly $80 billion in federal funding Congress granted—funds that could make this year's filing season go more smoothly.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

For this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, we're revisiting interviews with some of the biggest tax policy makers in the news this year.The OECD's two-pillar plan to reshape the global tax framework, the Inflation Reduction Act, and getting the court system back to a sense of normalcy amid the pandemic were among the biggest tax stories this year.Kathleen Kerrigan, the new chief judge of the US Tax Court, talks about pushing for more electronic filing of petitions and other challenges. Richard Jones, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, talks about the new work on his plate as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.And Pascal Saint-Amans, chief of the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration until late this year, talks about his decade-plus work revamping global tax rules and some of the organization's under-the-radar initiatives. Saint-Amans is now a partner at Brunswick Group and a professor at Lausanne University.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Most state tax stories are about legislation, regulation, and litigation. Too often lost in the headlines are the people who develop and manage state tax policies, and their motivations for pursuing careers in tax advocacy and tax administration.On this episode of Talking Tax, we talk with Alan Lindquist, a special assistant attorney general with the Illinois Department of Revenue. Lindquist has had an unusual career, representing taxpayers as a partner at Chicago-based Winston & Strawn LLP for 30 years. He surprised many of his peers in 2018, when he retired from the legal giant and began using his extensive background in complex tax litigation as an advocate for the revenue department.He spoke with Bloomberg Tax’s Michael Bologna about his career choices, the balance of power in tax litigation, the hot topics in state taxes, and the challenges revenue agencies face. Lindquist also offered some advice to recent law school graduates—and near-retirees, too—by encouraging them to consider public service work.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Starting with Ronald Reagan in 1981, every Republican president at some point has made tax cuts a centerpiece of his economic agenda, often with scant evidence that these policies have produced economic benefits that touch all Americans.Delving into some of the more notable moments in this history offers a roadmap to this inequality.How did a tax designed to discourage multigenerational inherited wealth come to be known as the "death tax?" Why are qualified dividends—which most taxpayers see as a single line on their 1040s—an outsized benefit for high income individuals? How did generous incentives help to reshore income held abroad?On this episode of Talking Tax, James B. Steele, a two-time Pulitzer Prize journalist who has covered economic inequality for decades, sat down with Bloomberg Law editor Bernie Kohn to talk about his story co-written for the Center for Public Integrity and Bloomberg Tax showing how US tax policies have consistently fueled inequality.This podcast is a partnership between the Center for Public Integrity, a newsroom that investigates inequality, and Bloomberg Tax.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence are quickly reinventing how auditors test corporate accounts, but these innovations also may require a reimagining of auditing standards.Christina Ho, a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, has called technology the “audit quality challenge of the 21st century." She's leading a working group of technologists, data scientists, and more traditional finance leaders to help the regulator plan for the future of digital auditing—setting the stage for guidelines that could boost audit quality—and facilitate an even playing field for large and small firms.On this episode of Talking Tax, Ho, who has called herself a “data nerd," sat down with Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone to talk about her career and tech background and share how those experiences shape her efforts at the US audit regulator.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Clean energy developers and investors trying to make the most of the credits in President Joe Biden's tax-and-climate law are evaluating how new requirements to get the boost are impacting projects.The tax-and-climate law devotes $374 billion to support climate and energy measures, including adding more and expanding on existing tax credits for the clean energy industry.One of the energy credit adders in the law, also known as the Inflation Reduction Act, is the domestic content requirement. It allows energy companies to get a 10% increase in the credit amount if all of the steel and iron from a facility is produced in the US and 40% of the manufactured products is produced in the US. However, one hurdle is that the US supplies to meet the manufacturing threshold is limited.On this episode of Talking Tax, our weekly podcast, Bloomberg Tax reporter Erin Slowey speaks with Amish Shah, a partner at Holland & Knight, about the value of the credits to companies and who's interested in the getting the domestic content adder.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

On this week's episode of Talking Tax, we bring you two discussions that focus on some of the biggest developments facing multinationals' tax departments.First, OECD tax head Grace Perez-Navarro shares with Bloomberg Tax reporter Isabel Gottlieb a glimpse into what's coming next from the global tax deal: the transfer pricing simplification plan known as Amount B, details on which unilateral measures will be revoked, and more guidance on the global minimum tax.Next, the acting commissioner of the IRS's Large Business and International Division, Holly Paz, talks to Bloomberg Tax reporter Michael Rapoport about where her team is focusing, including on transfer pricing audits and partnerships' disclosure of foreign income.These discussions took place at Bloomberg Tax's Nov. 17 Leadership Forum.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.