Talking Tax

The market for special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, was all the rage over the last year, with exponential asset growth in just a few months plus the involvement of celebrities like R&B singer Ciara and former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.

Then, last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission threw a sudden damper on it: new accounting guidance that forced many SPACs to issue financial restatements, which continue to appear just about daily.

Did the SPAC market just hit a wall? Or was it more like a speed bump?

On today's episode of our podcast, Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax's Nicola White speaks with Demetrios Frangiskatos of BDO about why the SPAC market got so hot, what the SEC's guidance really did to it, and where it might be heading in the near future.

The Biden administration has given a boost to a years-long effort toward global agreement on digital tax rules as negotiators work to strike a deal in the coming months.

Since she took office, Janet Yellen’s Treasury Department has started to reshape the conversation on both elements of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s two-part plan for a global tax overhaul. Treasury’s proposal to simplify the OECD’s “Pillar One”—which would move more tax revenue to countries where companies have users or consumers, instead of their headquarters—has helped move the talks past a stalemate. And a Biden administration proposal to hike the U.S.’s own global minimum rate to 21% has shaken up negotiations at the OECD over the minimum corporate tax rate, known as “Pillar Two.”

On this week's episode of our podcast, Talking Tax, we hear from Marcus Heyland, managing director of tax at KPMG in Washington. Until March, Marcus was a tax policy adviser at the OECD, where he worked on the Pillar One and Two plans.

Bloomberg Tax's Isabel Gottlieb talks to Heyland about the impact of the new U.S. administration on the global talks, and what issues negotiators are still grappling with as they try to reach an agreement this year.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) is among lawmakers from high-tax states who want to repeal the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes paid. Individuals in Democratic states like New York and California have seen their tax bills go up as a result of the cap, which was part of the 2017 tax law.

Suozzi is leading the fight against the cap, trying to pressure the Biden administration and leaders in Congress to include the repeal in an upcoming legislative package.

In this week’s episode of Talking Tax, reporter Kaustuv Basu talks to Suozzi about the battle to get rid of the cap and what he sees happening in the next few months.

President Joe Biden this week outlined his plan to increase taxes on wealthy individuals as a way to pay for investments in childcare and education.

An almost doubling of the federal capital gains tax rate and a provision curtailing a tax break on property transferred to heirs at death are among the changes in the American Families Plan. But noticeably absent are any increases to the estate tax—either by raising the top rate or by cutting the amount that wealthy families can pass on to the next generation tax-free, both of which are issues Biden campaigned on.

In this week's episode of Talking Tax, reporter Allyson Versprille speaks to Brad Dillon, a senior wealth strategist at UBS Group AG in New York City.

Dillon discusses the impact the Biden plan would have on wealthy individuals if enacted and whether it makes sense to plan for those changes now. 

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider a case Monday involving a California law requiring nonprofits to disclose the identities of their major donors to state officials.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a Charles Koch-backed nonprofit, and the Thomas Moore Law center argue that the law violates the First Amendment and have asked the high court to review a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upholding the law.

The case has drawn attention for its potential impact on elections: Supporters of the law say it protects the charitable sector from a flood of anonymous, politically motivated donations.

On this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, Bloomberg Law’s Jeff Leon talks with University of Notre Dame professor Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer about the case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra.

It has been a challenging year for the IRS, which is dealing with yet another prolonged tax-filing season while also distributing pandemic relief payments to hundreds of millions of people.

Those challenges come at a time when the agency has struggled for years to carry out its core duties of auditing returns, collecting taxes, and answering its phones due to underfunding and staffing shortages.

President Joe Biden is seeking to reverse these trends through a substantial increase to the IRS’s budget—he asked Congress to boost the agency’s baseline funding by more than 10% to $13.2 billion. The president hopes a bigger budget will allow the IRS to audit more wealthy individuals and corporations and plans to pair the increased enforcement revenue with tax hikes on corporations to pay for his infrastructure plan.

In this week’s episode of Talking Tax, reporter Allyson Versprille speaks to former IRS Commissioner John Koskinencq about how years of budget cuts have impacted the IRS and what an increase—like the one requested by the Biden administration—would mean for the agency.

The cannabis industry is booming, but a provision in the federal tax code is holding it back, two attorneys in the industry said.

The provision, Section 280E, doesn’t allow for tax deductions or credits stemming from trafficking in controlled substances, such as cannabis. The provision means some cannabis businesses owe more money to the IRS than they bring in, and is a frequent subject of litigation.

The issue is increasingly coming into focus as states have moved to legalize marijuana. Last month, New York became at least the 15th state to allow adults to use cannabis. Progress at the federal level is still politically complicated. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he plans to pursue comprehensive marijuana legislation, although President Joe Biden has yet to endorse full legalization.

On this episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, host Jeff Leon speaks with Iran Hopkins and Jonathan Robbins, two attorneys with the firm Akerman, about why the tax code provision exists and about whether the cannabis industry can flourish if it remains.

President Joe Biden this week unveiled his plan to pay for sweeping infrastructure investments by raising taxes on corporations.

The proposals include raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, imposing a 21% global minimum tax on U.S. companies, and giving the IRS more resources to crack down on tax evasion.

In this week’s episode of Talking Tax, reporters Allyson Versprille and Colin Wilhelm speak to Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, and DJ Gribbin, former special assistant to President Donald Trump for infrastructure.

Goolsbee and Gribbin discuss the impact of Biden’s proposed tax hikes on U.S. competitiveness and challenges the administration will face getting the plan through Congress.

Once again, we are in the middle of a protracted tax filing season. And for yet another year, tax execs closed the books virtually.

This week on our podcast Talking Tax, we hear how the season is going for corporate filers. Host Amanda Iacone speaks with Rema Serafi, national managing partner for tax at KPMG, about how tax directors are coping with having to close the books while their teams are working remotely. She also talks about some of the compliance challenges just around the corner.

The IRS announced this week that it would push back the deadline for some individuals to file and pay their taxes, a move that comes as the agency and taxpayers are grappling with changes in the new pandemic aid law.

In this week’s episode of Talking Tax, reporter Amanda Iacone speaks with Scott Berger, a tax principal at the firm Kaufman Rossin, about how the delayed deadline may affect his clients.

Berger also talks about how the IRS’ delay of this season’s deadline comes despite the agency still not having resolved all of the issues from the last filing season. The agency also extended last year’s filing season, as the Covid-19 pandemic began.