Talking Tax

By Bloomberg Tax

What's Talking Tax about?

Talking Tax, from Bloomberg Tax, is a weekly discussion of the most pressing issues facing tax and accounting professionals. Each week the podcast features discussions with lawmakers, federal regulators, lawyers, and journalists. From the courts to Capitol Hill to the IRS, Talking Tax has it covered.

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Talking Tax episodes:

04.17.2024
Breaking Down High Court Chevron Case and Tax Rules
A looming decision from the US Supreme Court on federal agency rulemaking power is fueling chatter on just how much it could upend the regulatory process at these agencies. Justices in January heard two cases, Relentless v. Dept. of Commerce and Loper Bright...
04.10.2024
Revival of Property Tax Suit Puts NYC in Hot Seat
A seven-year-old lawsuit aimed at forcing overhaul of New York City's complicated property tax system has gotten a new life, after the state's high court ruled last month it could move forward. Tax Equity Now New York, a broad housing coalition,...
04.03.2024
Tax Bill Holdup Offers Lessons, Some Optimism for 2025
While senators quibble over the $78 billion bipartisan tax package, the House is turning to next year, when a swath of tax cuts from the Republicans' 2017 law expire. Congress returns next week, and it's unclear if the full Senate will...
03.27.2024
Inside Government Crackdown on Corporate Jet Tax Abuse
The corporate jet industry is the latest to be targeted by the government's efforts to make the rich pay the taxes they owe. The IRS began an audit campaign in February to clamp down on executives abusing corporate jet tax breaks...
03.20.2024
Investors Await Companies Dishing Out More Tax Details
Coming soon to corporate financial statements: a lot more tax transparency. After seven years and three rounds of proposals, the Financial Accounting Standards Board in December published new rules requiring companies to shed light on the income taxes they pay to...
03.13.2024
New IRS Tool for Free Tax Return E-Filing Is Live
Many taxpayers with relatively simple returns can now electronically file their returns directly with the IRS for free for the first time. The IRS, after months of preparing its government-run free e-filing pilot tool, launched the program to the wider public...
03.06.2024
Tough Australian Tax Weapon Gets Court's Go-Ahead
Australian authorities continue to crack down on multinational companies it believes are trying to avoid Australian taxes—and a recent court ruling against PepsiCo Inc. gives them a tough weapon. A judge ruled in November that sales of beverage concentrate from a...
02.28.2024
IRS Eyes Sports Team Owners Reaping Big Tax Benefits
Sports team owners for decades have seen enormous tax benefits from their team purchases, dispatching squads of accountants to find write-offs on things from equipment and player salaries to TV rights and more. Now the IRS is looking to make...
02.21.2024
Taxing Digital Is Hard, Former State Tax Chief Says
For more than a decade, states have had to grapple with the challenge of taxing the digital economy. Peering into cyberspace, tax administrators were often left with more questions than answers. What online products and services should be taxed? How...
02.14.2024
Multinationals Shoot Ads With State Film Tax Credits
State film tax credit programs are increasingly financing advertisements for some of the world’s largest consumer product companies, some of which subsequently sell the credits to other companies looking to reduce their state tax liabilities. Twenty-eight states and Puerto Rico allow...
02.07.2024
Here's What to Know as Tax Filing Season Kicks Off
More than 146 million individual tax returns are expected to be filed before the end of the 2024 tax filing season. The IRS, with the help of the tens of billions of dollars in supplemental cash from the Democrats' 2022 tax-and-climate...
01.31.2024
States Eye Worldwide Reporting to Curb Income Shifting
For decades, states’ authorities to tax the earnings of multinational corporations have ended abruptly at the “water’s edge.” Frustration with this limitation, however, has grown in recent years as large, sophisticated businesses employ accounting techniques and asset transactions to shift...
01.24.2024
Ex-Treasury Official Plowgian Talks OECD Deal's Future
Michael Plowgian, who in December left his role as deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department, had an eventful stint at the department. The former top OECD negotiator for the US started at Treasury in October 2021 as...
01.17.2024
Fate of Latest Tax Proposal Is Far From Certain
Leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees unveiled a bipartisan framework this week that pairs business breaks with an expansion of the child tax credit, but a path toward passage remains rocky. Despite having the blessing of Senate Finance Chair...
01.10.2024
A Look at the US-Taiwan Tax Pact and What Happens Next
In a Congress where lawmakers are divided on an overwhelming set of issues, helping to alleviate double taxation for businesses operating in both the US and Taiwan is one with rare bipartisan unity. House Ways and Means Committee members voted in...
01.03.2024
Business Leader Talks OECD Tax Deal and Its Impact
Over the past six months, the OECD has released multiple documents with more details on parts of the international tax deal agreed to by over 140 countries in 2021. But even with the additional clarity from the Organization for Economic Cooperation...
12.20.2023
Union Head Talks IRS Hiring Push, Possible Shutdown
The union that represents about 65,000 IRS employees is teaming up with the agency to help attract new talent amid a hiring spree. The Democrats' tax-and-climate law gave the IRS tens of billions to dollars to modernize and go after taxpayers...
12.13.2023
US Chip Industry Win Hinges on Lucrative Tax Credit
More of the supply chain that helps create semiconductor chips wants in on a lucrative new tax credit aimed at boosting US competitiveness against China. As of now under IRS proposed rules, companies that manufacture materials or chemicals supplied to the...
12.06.2023
African Official Talks Global Tax Deal Challenges
African countries face several challenges in negotiating the global tax deal involving more than 140 countries at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The agreement includes reallocation of the residual profits of large multinational companies to market jurisdictions, known as...
11.29.2023
New Jersey's New Tax Lead Shares Vision for Year Ahead
Marita Sciarrotta, the new acting director of New Jersey's Division of Taxation, will have a busy year ahead as she settles into the role. Sciarrotta, who spent 40 years in the tax division before taking over as acting director in September,...
11.24.2023
RERUN: Warner Bros, FTI Tax Leaders on Navigating Uncertainty
(Note: This episode originally aired June 1, 2023) 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...
11.15.2023
Inside Malta Pension Promoters' Effort to Outsmart IRS
For more than a year, a group of wealth management advisers met regularly to devise strategies to defend their wealthy clients' keeping their riches in individual retirement arrangements based in Malta. The pension plans—which emerged out of a loophole in a...
11.08.2023
NY Governor Must Soon Act on Bill to Expose LLC Owners
The clock is ticking on Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to take action on legislation that would make New York the first state to publicly list the owners behind limited liability companies. The bill, A3484A, would require LLCs to disclose their beneficial...
11.01.2023
The Moore Supreme Court Case and Its Potential Impact
It isn't every day that a dispute over a $14,729 tax bill gets every corner of the tax world paying attention—but the potential ramifications of the dispute now before the Supreme Court go far beyond that. The court will hear oral...
10.25.2023
Accountants Take Center Stage in Trump, FTX Trials
A pair of high-profile fraud trials are competing for headlines out of New York courtrooms, with accountants serving as marquee witnesses. Accounting has been a common theme across both the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces federal fraud charges for...
10.18.2023
Crypto Backers Wary of Possible Tax Loophole Closure
Legislation and proposed regulations on cryptocurrency have the potential to answer some open questions about the taxation of digital assets, though not all of the possible changes may be welcomed by industry. A bill from Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten...
10.11.2023
New IRS Unit Targeting Partnerships Will Test Tax Laws
The IRS's new unit to tackle pass-through entity tax-law enforcement could take years to stand up fully and for businesses to feel its impact in the form of tougher audits. The push comes after years of concern among IRS officials that...
10.04.2023
Is Anyone Paying State Taxes on Bitcoin and NFTs?
State taxpayers have been sitting on a mountain of cryptocurrency assets for nearly a decade. According to one estimate, by the tax software and compliance firm Revenue Solutions Inc., 4.7 million California residents have stockpiled crypto assets valued at $56.2...
09.27.2023
IRS Shifts Auditing for 'Life-Changing' Tax Credits
Overhauling how the IRS audits low-income taxpayers is a critical step toward more fair audits, many in the industry acknowledged following the agency's announcement earlier this month. The IRS promised that it would "substantially" reduce audits on refundable tax credits...
09.20.2023
Deloitte Tax CEO Talks Global Reforms, Tech Future
The new CEO of Deloitte's tax practice is grappling with many of the same challenges as the Big Four firm's clients: rapid shifts in how tax practitioners work thanks to artificial intelligence, a shortage of skilled staff, and reforms that...
09.13.2023
NFL Kickoff Could Boost Tax Revenue in Betting States
Sports betting is in more states than ever, with new gamblers every day wagering in person and over the internet. And the new NFL season is expected to drive up tax revenue even more in the 30 states—plus Puerto Rico...
09.06.2023
Congress Returns to a Busy Fall With Tax in the Mix
Congress' tax writers return to Capitol Hill with several priorities that remain unaddressed, as September shapes up to be a busy month with tax policy firmly in the mix. On the second part of a two-part podcast series looking at Congress...
08.30.2023
IRS' Windfall Getting Swept Away on Capitol Hill
A year ago, the tax world was pleasantly surprised when Congress granted the chronically underfunded IRS an $80 billion windfall in the Inflation Reduction Act. Now that surprise is turning into dismay among some as Congress starts to claw back...
08.23.2023
AI Is Becoming a 'Co-Pilot' for Tax Professionals
Artificial intelligence has been helping companies with their taxes for a while—and now it’s on to the next stage. Companies have been using AI to automate and speed up the grunt work involved in their tax filings and tax compliance for...
08.16.2023
OECD's Manal Corwin Talks Next Steps in Global Tax Deal
July was a big month for the OECD, marking its release of a tranche of documents detailing progress on the global tax deal agreed to by more than 130 countries in 2021. The agreement includes reallocation of the residual profits of...
08.09.2023
Tax Firms Expand as Clean Energy Credit Demand Grows
Demand from clean energy and corporate clients looking to secure their share of credits from the tax-and-climate law is helping boost tax and law firms' footprints. The Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offers tax incentives to accelerate the US's transition...
08.02.2023
IRS Cracks Down on NIL Collectives' Tax-Exempt Status
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...
07.26.2023
The Politics of the Global Tax Deal, and What's Next
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...
07.19.2023
Business Roundtable Official Talks Chile Tax Treaty
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...
07.12.2023
Treasury Union Retiring Chief Talks IRS Worker Safety
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...
07.05.2023
Employee Retention Credit a Due Diligence Snag for M&A
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...
06.28.2023
Family Vineyards Grapple With French Inheritance Taxes
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...
06.22.2023
KPMG's Bank Audit Troubles Give Accounting a Black Eye
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...
06.14.2023
Developing Countries Want Voices Heard on Global Tax
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...
06.07.2023
Key Minnesota Lawmaker on Tackling Corporate Taxes
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...
05.31.2023
Warner Bros, FTI Tax Leaders on Navigating Uncertainty
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...
05.17.2023
Tax Automation Promises to Ease Tech Frustrations (Re-Run)
Note: This episode originally aired May 19, 2022. Automation tools increasingly used by seasoned tax professionals are helping to take some of the pain and manual labor out of routine compliance work. That futuristic tech goes beyond robotics process automation and can link together...
05.10.2023
Puerto Rico's Tax Reform Faces Hurdles Amid Criticism
Puerto Rico lawmakers say a tax plan backed by Gov. Pedro Pierluisi still falls short of being the long-sought tax overhaul the island desperately needs. After years of modifications, Puerto Rico still has one of the most complex tax systems in...
05.03.2023
IRS Chief Talks Goals, Work with Congress, and More
New IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has a lot on his plate. He is tasked with effectively spending the IRS's new $80 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funds and ensuring the agency has smooth tax-filing seasons, while also needing to respond to...
04.26.2023
Treasury's Adeyemo Talks Energy Credits Implementation
The Treasury Department and IRS were given big opportunities—and big responsibilities—with the enactment of last year's Inflation Reduction Act. The tasks ahead include issuing guidance on various clean-energy provisions in the tax-and-climate law. The Biden administration and congressional Democrats say the...

What's Talking Tax about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Talking Tax episodes:

Breaking Down High Court Chevron Case and Tax Rules

Revival of Property Tax Suit Puts NYC in Hot Seat

Tax Bill Holdup Offers Lessons, Some Optimism for 2025

Inside Government Crackdown on Corporate Jet Tax Abuse

Investors Await Companies Dishing Out More Tax Details

New IRS Tool for Free Tax Return E-Filing Is Live

Tough Australian Tax Weapon Gets Court's Go-Ahead

IRS Eyes Sports Team Owners Reaping Big Tax Benefits

Taxing Digital Is Hard, Former State Tax Chief Says

Multinationals Shoot Ads With State Film Tax Credits

Here's What to Know as Tax Filing Season Kicks Off

States Eye Worldwide Reporting to Curb Income Shifting

Ex-Treasury Official Plowgian Talks OECD Deal's Future

Fate of Latest Tax Proposal Is Far From Certain

A Look at the US-Taiwan Tax Pact and What Happens Next

Business Leader Talks OECD Tax Deal and Its Impact

Union Head Talks IRS Hiring Push, Possible Shutdown

US Chip Industry Win Hinges on Lucrative Tax Credit

African Official Talks Global Tax Deal Challenges

New Jersey's New Tax Lead Shares Vision for Year Ahead

RERUN: Warner Bros, FTI Tax Leaders on Navigating Uncertainty

Inside Malta Pension Promoters' Effort to Outsmart IRS

NY Governor Must Soon Act on Bill to Expose LLC Owners

The Moore Supreme Court Case and Its Potential Impact

Accountants Take Center Stage in Trump, FTX Trials

Crypto Backers Wary of Possible Tax Loophole Closure

New IRS Unit Targeting Partnerships Will Test Tax Laws

Is Anyone Paying State Taxes on Bitcoin and NFTs?

IRS Shifts Auditing for 'Life-Changing' Tax Credits

Deloitte Tax CEO Talks Global Reforms, Tech Future

NFL Kickoff Could Boost Tax Revenue in Betting States

Congress Returns to a Busy Fall With Tax in the Mix

IRS' Windfall Getting Swept Away on Capitol Hill

AI Is Becoming a 'Co-Pilot' for Tax Professionals

OECD's Manal Corwin Talks Next Steps in Global Tax Deal

Tax Firms Expand as Clean Energy Credit Demand Grows

IRS Cracks Down on NIL Collectives' Tax-Exempt Status

The Politics of the Global Tax Deal, and What's Next

Business Roundtable Official Talks Chile Tax Treaty

Treasury Union Retiring Chief Talks IRS Worker Safety

Employee Retention Credit a Due Diligence Snag for M&A

Family Vineyards Grapple With French Inheritance Taxes

KPMG's Bank Audit Troubles Give Accounting a Black Eye

Developing Countries Want Voices Heard on Global Tax

Key Minnesota Lawmaker on Tackling Corporate Taxes

Warner Bros, FTI Tax Leaders on Navigating Uncertainty

Tax Automation Promises to Ease Tech Frustrations (Re-Run)

Puerto Rico's Tax Reform Faces Hurdles Amid Criticism

IRS Chief Talks Goals, Work with Congress, and More

Treasury's Adeyemo Talks Energy Credits Implementation