Taxes

President Joe Biden will deliver the 2023 State of the Union Address tonight, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, at 9:00 p.m. EST. The President is expected to stress what he deems to be the successes of his administration during challenging times. History and Authority The State of the Union Address—sometimes referred to as SOTU—is delivered

It’s no secret that people are leaving the tax and accounting industry. They are either retiring or simply choosing another field. It’s also no secret that bringing new talent into the industry is not easy. This week, for obvious reasons, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about why this might be and thinking about the

The Readers Digest version of the Fair Tax Act of 2023 is that it replaces the income tax, payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare and transfer (estate and gift) taxes with a very broad sales tax. For 2025 the tax inclusive rate is 23% which translates to an add on rate, as sales

The recent rising 7520/AFR interest rate impacts the present value of a fixed annuity, and what this has implied as yields on mid-term Treasuries rose rapidly in recent months for tax planning involving charitable gift annuities and charitable lead or remainder annuity trusts. But, of course, not every planned gift involves a fixed annuity. We

Final regs generally don’t require taxpayers to recognize gain or loss when modifying contracts to replace discontinued interbank offered rates. However, to qualify for this favorable treatment, the contract modifications must meet specific conditions related to replacement interest rates and cash payments between borrowers and lenders. Published on January 4, 2022, T.D. 9961 contains final

One of the confusing things about tax season for many taxpayers is that the rules and brackets may be very different from year to year. For example, more than 60 tax provisions posted in Revenue Procedure 2021-45—made public about a year and a half ago—apply to the current filing season’s tax return. As you pull

Federal taxability of state-issued stimulus payments is causing frustration for taxpayers and tax professionals. Indeed, whether or not state-issued stimulus payments are federally taxable may be the most asked question of this filing season. For California’s taxpayers the frustration and confusion boiled over into the Procedurally Taxing blog where guest blogger Bob Kamman, a Phoenix-area

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about whether it may or may not be worth delaying filing until full retirement age (FRA), effects on other benefits when the higher earning spouse files and how spousal benefits are calculated. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic

I have been having silly arguments with Fair Tax enthusiasts. The Fair Tax Act of 2023 would be a tremendous simplification of federal taxation. It does not, however, reduce 70,000 pages to 131 and it does not entirely eliminate the Internal Revenue Code. Also it does not abolish the IRS. It renames parts of it

It won’t be long before the IRS releases its proposal for how to use the almost $80 billion in supplemental funding that Congress granted it over the next 10 years in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, P.L. 117-169). The plan is supposed to be out in mid-February. Although more than half of the $80 billion