The IRS is winning more cases in the US Tax Court over companies' valuation of intangible assets, such as patents and trademarks, through transfer pricing. The wins have caught the attention of companies and practitioners as they mull the growing risks of transfer pricing, which governs transactions between related companies that are part of the same multinational group. Disputes between the IRS and companies such as Coca-Cola and 3M have showcased the agency's newfound ability to audit their...

The nation is unpacking what comes next with Donald Trump's second presidency and with a Senate that flipped from Democratic to Republican. One of the biggest questions that remains unanswered is how this impacts upcoming talks over myriad provisions in the GOP's signature 2017 tax law that expire at the end of 2025. Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo—no stranger to tax policy and negotiations—becomes chair of the Senate Finance Committee and will have a major hand in what happens with those...

California regulators are prepared to walk away from strict licensing rules that require accountants to earn the equivalent of five years of college to qualify. The California Board of Accountancy has proposed reforms that would grant the certified public accountant license to candidates with a traditional bachelor’s degree plus two years of work experience in addition to passing the CPA exam. The proposal would unwind current rules that call for 150 hours of college credits to qualify—a...

Artificial intelligence is becoming a bigger part of tax practice and policy every day. The Big Four are spending billions of dollars on AI models, and even mid-tier accounting firms seem willing to at least tread into generative AI transformation, albeit slowly. These investments raise questions about how corporate in-house tax departments are evaluating AI integration. In this special edition of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax Insights editor-at-large Rebecca Baker chatted with three different...

The fate of the 2017 GOP tax overhaul is top of mind for corporations in the weeks leading up to the election. Many of the law's provisions are expiring in 2025, setting Congress up to negotiate another major tax law. Corporations are closely watching what happens to bonus depreciation, interest expense deductions, and research and development expensing, S&P Global Rating Managing Director Shripad Joshi said. Plus, both presidential candidates have campaigned on changing the corporate...

After more than two years, the Treasury Department has proposed rules to implement the new minimum tax on companies’ book income. Now comes the hard part. The regulations, which Treasury issued last month, would govern how the corporate alternative minimum tax is applied and calculated. CAMT, enacted in 2022, requires big companies to pay at least 15% in taxes on the income they report on their financial statements—a crackdown on companies that have been able to pay little or nothing in the...

The European Court of Justice's ruling against Apple Inc. over a $14.4 billion Irish tax bill stunned members of the international tax community, who said it throws the high court's precedent on tax state aid cases into disarray. The EU high court ruled last month that the company's tax positions in Ireland, which were agreed to by Irish authorities in 1991 and 2007, amounted to illegal state aid. EU law stipulates that member states shouldn't give companies preferential treatment—state...

The Multistate Tax Commission dates to the 1960s, yet the intergovernmental tax agency and its mission on behalf of state revenue departments are often not well understood. The map of tax laws and regulations across the 50 states would be much more complicated and inconsistent without the efforts of committed attorneys, auditors, and administrators working on behalf of the commission. On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax senior reporter Michael J. Bologna discusses the MTC's goals...

The GOP's 2017 tax law—the biggest change in the US tax code in three decades—left a mammoth task for the IRS and Treasury Department. It resulted in the Treasury and a severely underfunded IRS creating the blueprint for taxpayers and tax practitioners trying to follow the law, releasing over 200 pieces of formal guidance and more than 300 pieces of informal guidance. Many of these provisions are set to expire next year and face an uncertain fate as the November election approaches with...

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) likes to be prepared. Schneider and fellow House Democrats are getting behind-the-scenes briefings that started this summer to bone up on their tax policy knowledge ahead of what's likely to become a big battle in 2025. The Illinois Democrat is a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and he's running to lead the influential New Democrat Coalition. The hope, he said, is to find agreement on tax policy that will be permanent so lawmakers don't once...

Lawmakers return to Washington next week for the final sprint of legislating before the November elections, on the heels of a failed tax bill vote, and with an appropriations deadline fast approaching. Congress will be under pressure in the next few weeks to reach a deal on government funding to avoid a shutdown on Sept. 30. The Democratic-controlled Senate is set to clash with the GOP House over whether to slash IRS funds or keep them steady, though with so little time left in session...

The market for clean energy tax credits has been booming, with demand and supply skyrocketing since the 2022 tax-and-climate law established new credits and launched a way for energy developers to easily sell those credits to investors. A midyear report by the energy tax marketplace Crux forecasts that energy tax credit transfer deals could total between $20 billion and $25 billion this year, while financial services firm Evercore ISI estimates that more than $100 billion in transferable...

When Microsoft Corp. won a $94 million income tax refund from the California Office of Tax Appeals in February, it was considered one of the biggest victories for corporate taxpayers ever in California. Now it’s unclear if Microsoft will get that refund, or if other multinationals with similar claims will either. A law passed in June reversed the ruling upholding Microsoft’s refund, and the first two lawsuits challenging the reversal landed last week. The intent of the new law (S.B. 167) is...

Ernst & Young LLP is developing a generative AI tool for tax professionals that's meant to automate repetitive data work and make tax planning more efficient. The Big Four company is investing $1.4 billion into gen AI globally. Other Big Four firms have made similar pledges. The investments are in part a bet that the technology can fill in some gaps from the longstanding accounting shortage. But implementing the technology in tax departments is difficult, in part because of how often...

Nearly 75% of cannabis businesses operate at a loss, and many in the industry point to a feature of the Internal Revenue Code as the reason why. Cannabis companies are prohibited from deducting ordinary business expenses—like rent or payroll—from their federal taxes as long as marijuana remains under the most restrictive portion of the Controlled Substances Act. That could change if marijuana is moved from Schedule I to Schedule III of the act, as the Biden administration has proposed. But in...

Italian economist Pasquale Tridico, newly elected chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Tax Matters, has some fresh ideas to curb tax avoidance, which he says will be one of his top priorities. His committee can't propose legislation or substantially alter it in any way. But the panel has gained influence and exposure over time. Set up soon after the Panama Papers leaks, the committee has become a forum for politicians, companies, researchers, and activists to share opinions and...

The corporate tax rate is coming up in nearly "every conversation" House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) has been at recently. Miller is leading one of the ten House Ways and Means GOP tax teams, created to collect information and prepare for tax discussions in 2025, when much of the 2017 tax law expires. Miller's "Supply Chains" team is focusing on energy tax credits and the corporate tax rate, among other issues. This week members met with former Ways and Means Chair...

The state tax gap—the difference between the true tax liabilities owed to a state and the amount voluntarily submitted to revenue agencies—is possibly the most stubborn and perplexing problem facing tax administrators. For decades, revenue commissioners have tried to close the gap through audits and enforcement sweeps, but the process is slow, costly, and uncertain. Janette Lohman, a former director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, believes there is a way to collect more delinquent...

Training for CPAs must evolve to focus on the skills and experiences necessary to meet future market demands, the leader of the largest US accounting industry group said. Barry Melancon, president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs, also defended a required fifth year of college for CPA candidates, saying current rules have achieved their purpose of elevating the role of accountants and turning out better-educated professionals. Melancon, who is preparing to retire in December, spoke...

The new chief of the IRS criminal division wants America to know he’s hiring special agents, and they’re fulfilling their mission to investigate tax and financial crimes. Guy Ficco started his new gig in April following an almost three-decade career at the agency. He comes into the position at the same time the IRS is flush with tens of billions in funding from the Democrats’ 2022 tax-and-climate law. In fiscal year 2023, CI initiated more than 2,676 criminal investigations and identified...

The US Supreme Court brought a muted end last week to its biggest tax case in years, but the arguments that propelled the case are far from over, especially about what the court’s ruling could mean for future attempts to enact a wealth tax. The court voted 7-2 to uphold the mandatory repatriation tax, a one-time tax on past foreign corporate profits. Washington state residents Charles and Kathleen Moore had challenged the constitutionality of the tax, arguing that it had forced them to pay...

Wealthy taxpayers are rushing to prepare in case a more generous exemption from the estate tax expires at the end of 2025 along with many of the individual tax cuts from the Republicans' 2017 tax overhaul.  In 2024, taxpayers are exempt from the 40% estate tax on the first $13.6 million of assets passed on to heirs. But the exemption is set to fall by about half, practitioners estimate, if Congress doesn’t act to extend it. People are moving money into different types of trusts now to take...

Countries are under pressure to finalize and sign the text of the OECD's multilateral tax treaty, one part of the international tax deal known as Pillar One, by the end of June.  Several OECD officials, including Manal Corwin, director of the organization's Center for Tax Policy and Administration, have reported significant progress on finalizing the document. But negotiations have hit a snag. The problem area is treatment of another part of Pillar One, known as Amount B, that's meant to...

Six months into implementation of the new global corporate minimum tax, countries are racing to craft incentives to attract and maintain outside investment. Companies, too, are pouring resources into complying with the tax. The tax took effect in January in dozens of countries across the globe, with a goal of "raising the floor" tax rate to 15% in every country that a multinational company operates in, to reduce profit shifting to low-tax countries. In this podcast episode, Bloomberg Tax...