Three years after asking, Ways & Means will obtain the former president’s tax returns. The Supreme Court issued an unsigned order denying former President Donald Trump’s effort to block the Treasury Department from turning over his tax returns to the House committee. Chairman Richard Neal has not indicated whether the panel will publish the returns.
How will the IRS navigate a shifting crypto landscape? TPC’s John Buhl asks whether the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX may encourage the IRS to rethink its crypto compliance strategy. The agency’s efforts largely rely on centralized exchanges like FTX to report crypto transactions. John’s concern: “Without centralized exchanges facilitating compliance, we risk heading toward an antagonistic environment with one side eschewing regulation and the other ignoring the potential for innovation.”
The two-week scramble to fund the government. Congress has only until Dec. 16 to agree to a catch-all spending bill before, yes, the government shuts down. Some Democrats also would like to somehow extend the nation’s debt limit for at least a couple of years, though that sounds like a long-shot.
UN General Assembly’s Finance Committee will start its own international tax talks. The panel is challenging the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) effort to establish international corporate taxation standards. The UN initiative was pushed by the 54-member African Group of nations within the General Assembly. TPC’s John Buhl notes that some advocates worry that the OECD’s final product would not address the needs of developing countries. The UN measure could “embolden skeptics in Congress and holdouts in the EU who already have concerns about the plan.”
Why aren’t children a higher priority for Congress? TPC’s Gene Steuerle asks a perennial question about congressional spending. The Urban Institute’s Kids’ Share Report 2022 shows that Congress has historically placed children at the bottom of its priorities. And absent policy changes, by 2032 all categories of spending on children as a share of the economy are projected to decline to levels last seen in 1980.
Taxing pets is complicated. A North Carolina pet owner was surprised to learn that her city is authorized to “levy an annual license tax on the privilege of keeping any domestic animal.” The cost of the license can vary based on multiple variables, including the pet owner’s age and disability status, the pet’s age, and whether the pet is sterilized. (It’s not just North Carolina, by the way.)
Insights into post-election tax policy. Join Arshi Siddiqui, a former senior policy advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Thursday at Noon on this week’s episode of TPC’s webcast The Prescription. The Akin Gump partner will join host Howard Gleckman to discuss what the recent elections mean for tax policy in the lame-duck session and in 2023.
Don’t forget the Dec. 1 deadline for paper proposals for the next IRS-TPC Joint Research Conference on Tax Administration. The conference will take place at the Urban Institute on June 22. Possible paper topics include measuring and influencing taxpayer compliance, estimating compliance costs, complexity, administration, and taxpayer behavior. E-mail proposals to: [email protected] with "proposed paper" in the subject line. Completed papers will be due May 22, 2023.
For the latest tax news, subscribe to the Tax Policy Center’s Daily Deduction. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekdays at 8:00 am (Mondays only when Congress is in recess). We welcome tips on new research or other news. Email Renu Zaretsky at [email protected].
