Talking Tax

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 Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

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 pre-recorded interview aired during the Bloomberg Tax Leadership Forum, held virtually Tuesday. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

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 consequential legislative session with Rep. Aisha Gomez (D), chair of the House Taxes Committee. Gomez, a progressive in her third term, discusses the practical, political, and personal challenges she had to overcome in delivering the tax package.Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

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.