Talking Tax

New rules for corporate auditors are on their way, but many of these auditing firms are worried that international standards for how firms assess their risk will diverge from those in the U.S., leaving them to cope with a patchwork quilt of do's and don'ts.On this episode of Talking Tax, host Amanda Iacone talks with Tom Seidenstein, chair of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. Tom explains how the IAASB developed its new auditing standards and how it tried to harmonize them as much as possible with its U.S. counterpart.

The Supreme Court is back in session, and is set to consider a tax case that could lead to more scrutiny of Treasury actions.CIC Services, LLC v. IRS is scheduled for arguments Dec. 1. The justices will consider whether a Civil War-era law prohibits courts from ruling on a reporting requirement at issue, before the plaintiff has actually been penalized.Kristin Hickman, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in tax and administrative law, says this case, along with a similar one on the court’s docket for this fall, could give the judicial branch a much more prominent role in taxation than it has ever had. (Hickman has written amicus briefs in support of CIC Services.)She speaks with host Jeff Leon for the latest episode of Talking Tax, our weekly tax podcast.

One of the main takeaways from The New York Times' bombshell report unveiling the President's tax returns is that the line between his business and personal filings is nearly nonexistent.However, Bloomberg News' Laura Davison says that's pretty common for people like Donald Trump who are in the real estate and development business and own their own closely held family business.On today's episode of Talking Tax, Laura speaks with host Amanda Iacone about Trump's taxes and about how professionals in the tax field are reacting to the newest revelation.

It seems no one is really happy with the IRS' rules governing the professional conduct of tax professionals: not the courts, not tax professionals, and not even the IRS itself.On today's episode of Talking Tax, host Jeff Leon speaks with two people who have special insight into the agency's efforts to rewrite its ethics rules: a tax practitioner who has been following this issue for years, and a tax advisory who fought back against an IRS ethics charge—and won.

On this episode of Talking Tax, we highlight a new project that examines the anxieties and uncertainties of tax professionals around the billions of dollars in coronavirus relief funding that Congress has allocated.Host Jeff Leon speaks with Bloomberg Industry Group deputy team leaders Colleen Murphy and Jay-Anne Casuga about the questions they received from subscribers and about what trends they were able to glean from these queries.Click here to read more from our multi-part series about navigating virus aid and minimizing risk.

On this episode of Talking Tax, we speak with former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson about some of the many tax credits that small businesses may not be aware they can claim. For example, Everson says businesses that are operating differently or making new products due to the coronavirus pandemic may be eligible to receive a research and development tax credit.Everson also weighs in on how his former agency is struggling to respond to the mountains of correspondence it has received since the pandemic started and also tells host Amanda Iacone that the IRS' struggles here have affected him personally.

On this week's episode of Talking Tax, we hear from public policy researcher Donnie Charleston with the group E Pluribus Unum about how the tax system in America provides white taxpayers with benefits people of color often don't or can't enjoy.Charleston speaks with Bloomberg Tax's Yuri Nagano about how the racial history of real estate in the U.S. is still causing great inequality today in the way property taxes are levied and collected.

Numerous tax-related provisions, including changes to the Paycheck Protection Program and the expansion of anti-layoff credits, could make their way into a larger pandemic relief bill being drafted in Congress right now.However, even though lots of these provisions enjoy bipartisan support, the broader legislative package is stalling as Democrats and the White House can't come to an agreement on its bottom line price tag.On this episode of our podcast, Talking Tax, host Amanda Iacone speaks with Bloomberg Tax congressional reporters, Colin Wilhelm and Kaustuv Basu, about which of these tax provisions will wind up in the final bill—if and when the two sides can reach an agreement.

The IRS doesn’t collect data on taxpayers’ racial or ethnic backgrounds, which advocates say makes it difficult to determine whether tax policies disproportionately hurt minorities.In this week’s episode of Talking Tax, host Amanda Iacone speaks with reporter Allyson Versprille about the push to allow the IRS to collect more detailed demographic data. Ally also talks about how recent pandemic relief laws have put an enormous amount on the agency’s plate at a time when it may be least able to handle that extra work.

The months of self-isolation and social distancing are beginning to weigh on all of us, and tax professionals are no different. On today's episode of Talking Tax, which originally aired on May 7, we hear from four different accountants about the new stresses they're facing and how they're managing to cope.Talking Tax host Amanda Iacone speaks with a nearly 40-year veteran of the industry, the owner of a husband-and-wife practice juggling her firm and her five kids, and more. We learn how work practices have been forced to change and about how the crisis has made it imperative that tax professionals shift their role from accountant to adviser.Producers: Amanda Iacone and David Schultz