Money

Taxes

Nicholas Mowbray of Baker & Hostetler LLP discusses the recently enacted Superfund excise taxes on chemicals and hazardous substances and some compliance concerns and uncertainty surrounding them.

It may be every politician’s favorite fantasy—weaponizing the IRS. Last week it was reported that two high-ranking former FBI officials who had been fired by then President Trump were both subjected to a rare type of IRS audit. The report has Congress asking if the audits were targeted.

Can we talk ourselves into a recession? We did so in 2008. We're doing so again now. Loose lips sink big economies, even ours, which is currently going great guns.

Marie Sapirie examines proposed tax incentives for employer-sponsored retirement plans, and she points out that passage of large retirement savings tax legislation is increasingly likely.

Today's Social Security column addresses questions about when delayed retirement benefits are applied to benefit payments, when it may be best to take survivor benefits and when it's possible to receive spousal benefits.

It is actually absurd that someone can get away with this even once, but it is a weakness in the IRS systems that has been exploited by others.

Boris famously dodged IRS bills for years, but eventually ended his tax fight by renouncing his American citizenship. The IRS taxed the sale of his first home in the U.K., even though under UK law it was not taxable in England. He hadn’t lived in the U.S. since he was five years old.

“One of the reasons I feel occasionally useful in Congress is actually having some background in business and technology, I have some idea of where the puck is going,’’ Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) told Forbes.

If you were wondering, the seven states without an income tax are Nevada, Washington, South Dakota, Texas, Florida, Wyoming, and Alaska. But these are not the states with the lowest tax burdens.

Californians know that the state’s tax agency, the Franchise Tax Board or FTB, seems tougher than the IRS. It can seem like any connection to California can be enough to get taxed there. Now, you can be outside of California and still face California taxes.