Private equity funds manage vast amounts of money: $2.5 trillion in 2010, much more than the $100 billion in 1994. They earn immense profits, largely from selling the stock of acquired and improved companies. This article focuses on the character of the funds' profits. It recommends that the IRS...
Stockbrokers began reporting sales proceeds and cost basis to the IRS and taxpayers this year. This article describes how those information reports came about and discusses the issues they raise. It also argues that compliance gains and simplification benefits justify the reporting burdens that...
This article introduced FAS 133, which was a new accounting standard for derivatives and hedges—and then compared the tax rules applicable to these instruments. It suggested the two sets of rules be reconciled. That is, derivatives be marked-to-market for tax purposes, as they are for financial...
Foreign investors, retirement accounts, and other tax-exempt entities now dominate US stock ownership. This shift has important implications for understanding who wins and who loses...
Bloomberg recently reported on an exchange traded fund (ETF) with the ticker symbol BOXX that exploits various tax rules to transform what’s effectively interest income,...
In the United States’ voluntary tax system, taxpayers are responsible for correctly reporting their incomes to the IRS, rather than having the government determine their...
Companies now spend more than a $1 trillion annually to repurchase their stock, in lieu of paying higher dividends to their shareholders, or investing more...
Third-party payment platforms such as Airbnb, eBay, and PayPal found a surprise gift from the Biden Administration in their Christmas stockings last month—one that likely...
The New York Times reported that Chicago businessman Barre Seid donated his entire business, tax free, to the Marble Freedom Trust, a tax-exempt advocacy organization...
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) approved by Congress last week included a new 1 percent stock buyback excise tax on US publicly traded corporations. Many...
President Joe Biden and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) have proposed different ways to tax unrealized capital gains every year. Their shared goal...
The “tax gap”—the difference between taxes owed to the government and taxes actually collected—often is equated with evasion . But the tax gap is more...
In a recent report co-authored with University of Chicago Professor Daniel Hemel, I described how our retirement tax system favors the rich disproportionately. But it’s...
Mega-IRAs are hot this summer, following a June 2021 report by the nonprofit news service ProPublica that revealed—based on leaked IRS files—that a handful of...
In his American Families Plan, President Biden unveiled a tax compliance initiative aimed at closing the gap between taxes that are owed and what are...
Last week, a group of prominent academic and government economists published a study that estimated the top 1 percent of Americans hide more than 20...
Our new analysis shows that foreign investors owned about 40 percent of US corporate equity in 2019, up substantially over the last few decades. Retirement...
Yesterday, I testified before the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight on “tax fairness,” and the hearing spotlighted the reporting of new details on President...
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the IRS are right: Because the hundreds of billions of dollars the businesses are getting through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief,...
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grants massive tax relief for business losses, but most of the benefits will be reaped by...
