Tax Court Judge Albert Lauber’s recent opinion in Ranch Springs 164 TC No 6 may be the beginning of the end of the long battle between syndicated conservation easement promoters and the IRS. In 2024 the IRS won a long string of cases and they continued that trend into 2025 with Capitol II Owners LLC, Seabrook Property LLC and Green Valley Investors LLC, which I covered here. So what is special about Ranch Springs? What is special is that it addresses an argument that the industry has been making in the court of public opinion, but, as far as I…

With the Senate passing a FY 2025 budget resolution on Saturday, April 5th and the House of Representatives passing a separate FY 2025 budget resolution on February 25th, some may anticipate federal tax reform legislation to move quickly. However, the distinction between the Senate and House budget resolution proposals are significant, and with Speaker Johnson only being able to lose three Republican votes, the path to federal tax reform remains unclear. The House and the Senate need to pass identical versions of a budget resolution process to start budget reconciliation, and ultimately complete federal tax reform. Certain members of the…

Melanie Krause, the acting commissioner of the IRS, is leaving her position after the tax agency reached an agreement to share immigrant tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The IRS agreed to provide information about undocumented immigrants who are facing deportation orders and under federal criminal investigation, according to court filings. Under the agreement, the IRS will verify the names and addresses of immigrants provided on tax records to ICE. It’s unclear what other information may be provided by the IRS. However, an initial lawsuit suggests it could include information about dependents and other personal information. IRS and…

President Donald Trump’s tariffs will generate far less tax revenue than the administration claims, according to a new Tax Policy Center estimate, even as import taxes disrupt stock markets and the world economy. Peter Navarro, a senior trade official in the White House, projected tariffs announced since January would generate about $6 trillion to $7 trillion over 10 years. A tax increase of that magnitude would generate enough revenue to fund an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as well as some of Trump’s campaign promises, such as tax-free tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits. Falling Far…

Throughout the last decade of digital transformation, and even over the last couple of years of refinement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), businesses have been largely focused on point solutions. Whether they are deploying tools to improve research and data extraction, risk assessment and regulatory reporting or analytics and forecasting, most businesses have thought about technology in vertical silos based on a specific function or range of functions. While innovation has still flourished in that environment, it has been limited in many ways by compartmentalization. When we think about using a piece of technology to perform a professional task, like…

In this episode of Tax Notes Talk, Professor Andrew Kahrl, author of The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America, discusses his argument that local property taxes have contributed to the disenfranchisement of Black homeowners. Tax Notes Talk is a podcast produced by Tax Notes. This transcript has been edited for clarity. David D. Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International. This week: disparate tax impacts. Roughly three-fourths of local government funding comes from the property tax, but its revenue-raising potential may have a negative side. Recent…

Over the past two months, there has been a lot of speculation on the assessment of tariffs with US trading partners. Legislators and economists have clashed on the impact of this change in trade policy, and markets here and abroad have seen a roller coaster-style reaction to the seemingly on-again, off-again status of tariffs. On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump announced a broad range of tariffs on our international trading partners, putting to bed the speculation on this topic. The announcement was met with immediate reactions by stock markets around the world, with all major indexes trading lower than…

U.S. stocks tumbled again today as traders grappled with the consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The S&P 500—a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies in the U.S.—which hit a record high on February 19 dropped quickly today, the second-fastest such drop in history (lagging only behind the drop due to Covid). Investors took to social media to complain about the losses—but that can be a loaded term especially when it comes to tax. Markets go up and down—it’s the nature of the beast. When the market goes down, that doesn’t equal an actual or…

President Trump likes to muse about his plans to annex Canada. While proclaiming his love for the Canadian people, he has also threatened the nation with “economic force.” “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.” Some of this talk is probably just trolling; politicians understand the utility of baiting their opponents into outraged arguments. But Canadians seem to be taking Trump seriously. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Trump’s threats “a real thing” and…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was aware of significant underreporting of cryptocurrency on tax returns and used one of its investigative tools (i.e. a John Doe summons) in 2016 to seek financial information on thousands of individuals, including Mr. James Harper. Harper sued in 2020, alleging unlawful access to his private financial information, and has been embroiled in litigation since then and is now seeking relief from the Supreme Court of the United States. Harper’s case against the IRS has brought significant attention to the issue of financial privacy in the digital age. Harper’s petition to the Supreme Court challenges…