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Scott and Jeff chat with Evelyn Smith and Hadi Elzayn, two of the seven coauthors on a recent working paper entitled "Measuring and Mitigating Racial Disparities in Tax Audits."

We ask them details about the paper. We find that the unconditional audit disparity between (estimated) black tax payers and (estimated) non-black taxpayers  is about 5%. We ask about the conditional disparity. The authors explain that conditional on some factors the disparity remains. We discuss what constitutes an audit (a letter in this case). We ask whether the IRS should care about collecting the most amount of revenue, or whether the IRS should care about deterring non-compliance. 

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President Biden gave the State of the Union address last night. Scott and Jeff talk about the tax components of the address. They discuss large corporations which pay little in tax, billionaires who pay little in tax, and taxing share repurchases., and "apples and elephants comparisons."  

Also, Jeff explains why it is impossible for pretty much any taxpayer, let alone those making under $400K a year, to pay a penny more in taxes under any of President Biden's current or former tax proposals (IRC 985 and 6102 come into play!). 

Note: We base this episode off of the official script of the State of the Union  address (https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2023/), which omits some fabulous adlibbing by President Biden.

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In this episode, Scott and Jeff speak with Ryan Gurule of the FACT Coalition about the types of things companies disclose about taxes in their public filings. We talk about what is good and not so good, and we discuss some of the possible changes that might be made. We recorded this episode on November 1, 2022. Later in the year, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announce an update to its "Improvements to Tax Disclosures" project. The proposals are well aligned with what we discussed in the episode.

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Scott and Jeff chat with Bryen Alperin about tax credit markets. It is often the case that a company that might earn a tax credit can't use it because it has insufficient income. This creates an opportunity for multilateral tax planning, wherein institutions with large tax bills partner with entities that generate tax credits to take take advantage of tax savings.

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This episode originally aired on January 15, 2022.

Martin Luther King Jr. is the only person to have ever been tried for perjury with regards to state income taxes in Alabama. Jeff and Scott interview Edgar Dyer about the tax perjury trial of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1960. Eddie wrote an article entitled "A Triumph of Justice in Alabama: The 1960 Perjury Trial of Martin Luther King, Jr."

Fred Grey, Martin Luther King's attorney, said of the trial, "No one would have predicted that an all-white jury in Montgomery, Alabama, the Cradle of the Confederacy, in May 1960, in the middle of all the sit-ins and all of the racial tension that was going on, would exonerate Martin Luther King, Jr. But it really happened." Coretta Scott King said of the trial, "A southern jury of twelve white men had acquitted Martin. It was a triumph of justice, a miracle that restored your faith in human good."  Dr. King said it was a "turning point" in his life. Tune in to hear about this triumphal tax trial, which was a turning point for Martin Luther King.

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Scott and Jeff chat with David Kemmerer, Co-Founder and CEO of CoinLedger. Our conversation focuses, in part, on the NFT Loss Harvestooor, which is a tool designed to allow investors to dispose of NFTs such that they can claim the tax deduction. The NFT Graveyard is the final resting place of NFTs that were once worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but are now worth essentially nothing.

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Scott and Jeff chat with Leopoldo Parada, professor of law at University of Leeds about the inequities that Pillar II of the OECD's Inclusive Framework impose on developing countries.

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Away to Pay Taxes (to the tune of Away in the Manger)
Re-release (originally released Christmas, 2021)

Lyrics by Jeff Hoopes, Sung by Stacey Hoopes

Oh Joseph and Mary
They were there for a task
They came to the city
To pay their tax
But as they remitted 
The tax on their worth
Oh Mary, a virgin
She had to give birth

 They went to the city
By Caesa­r’s decree
As taxes touched Joseph
They affect you and me
When we give birth
and when we die
How much we work
And what car we buy 

 For every decision
We weigh how we act
By counting the cost
And we do it post-tax 
The pros and the cons
In dollars and cents
We consider the taxes
Before we commence

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In honor of the fifth anniversary of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act...

I Heard the Bells (of tax reform!)
Sung to the tune of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Singing by two of Dyreng's Deductions
Lyrics of Jeff Hoopes

I heard the tale about the day
They passed the law TCJA
The rate was high our firms payed much
So they were blessed by Donald’s touch

The rate brought low that fated day
When Congress put out on display
That we are strong and we will beat
On taxes we will now compete

For mobile factors move and shift
Their presence all boats will lift
And the economy will grow
For rates were high and now they're low

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Scott and Jeff chat with Daniel Hemel about the House Ways and Means Committee "Report on the Internal Revenue Service's Mandatory Audit Program" that reveals substantial information about former President Trump's tax returns. Additional information was revealed in a report by the Joint Committee on Taxation.