December 10, 2015 - 5:55 AM EST
by Jeremy Scott
The conventional wisdom is that Congress passes messy laws and Treasury and the IRS have to use their regulatory authority to provide clarity and administrability. The recent changes to partnership audits are only the latest example of practitioners and observers crying out that provisions in legislation can't possibly work and that the government needs to save taxpayers and their advisers from a lawmaker-created muddle. But that conventional wisdom isn't always true. In fact, too often in the last few years, it's been Congress saving the fisc from bizarre administrative decisions from Treasury or the Service that have wounded the tax system.
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December 9, 2015 - 8:59 AM EST
by David Brunori
On December 4 President Obama signed into law the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act. While it deals with funding transportation, the new law also contains a pernicious scheme to raise revenue. It requires the IRS to use private debt collectors.
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December 3, 2015 - 9:03 AM EST
by Stuart Gibson
Every experienced trial lawyer knows the saying, “When the facts are against you, pound on the law. When the law is against you, pound on the facts. When both are against you, pound on the table.”
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November 24, 2015 - 7:54 AM EST
by Joseph J. Thorndike
Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign is still churning out tax proposals at a furious pace. Over the weekend, she proposed a new credit for caretakers—intended, according to her campaign, to “provide support for the millions of families paying for, coordinating, or providing care for aging or disabled family members.”
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October 30, 2015 - 8:48 AM EDT
by Cara Griffith
Newsflash…it’s 2015, and it might be time to reexamine the idea of unpublished opinions.
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September 21, 2015 - 9:21 AM EDT
by Martin A. Sullivan
Two outspoken billionaires at opposite ends of the political spectrum reach the same conclusion.
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September 15, 2015 - 3:46 PM EDT
by Robert Goulder
It’s not every day that a U.S. senator, let alone a presidential candidate, sues the government to suspend the enforcement of a federal tax law. Yet that is exactly what Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is doing. He is one of seven plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
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July 24, 2015 - 10:12 AM EDT
by Christopher Bergin
I’ve predicted that it will take two years to start a serious discussion of reforming the tax laws and the agency that administers them. After watching Rand Paul’s latest video, I’ve pushed that back a decade.
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September 19, 2014 - 10:07 AM EDT
by Ajay Gupta
Treasury’s export of Stanley Surrey’s arm’s-length standard was perhaps the most successful case of ideological conversion in the arena of international tax policy. Even as the United States inches away from that construct, the OECD clings to it with a zeal befitting a convert. Treasury may very well have to renounce the dogma of Surrey’s infallibility before true reform in the global transfer pricing regime can take place.
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July 11, 2014 - 9:39 AM EDT
by Mindy Herzfeld
This week’s international tax highlights include Jean-Claude Juncker’s agenda for EU tax policy, changes in the IRS’ international administration, and continued assertiveness by the U.S. and other governments in pursuing tax evasion while BEPS goes into sleep mode.
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