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…

When it comes to estate planning, how you hold property with others can have significant tax implications after you have passed on. Internal Revenue Code Section 2040 governs how joint ownership of property with right of survivorship is treated for federal estate tax purposes. The rules can catch even the most astute investors off guard. Whether it’s a stock portfolio shared between siblings or a family home owned with a spouse, the tax outcome hinges on various factors including who paid what for the asset, whether in the case of spouses both are U.S. citizens and whether there are well-maintained…

As international e-commerce has grown, so too has the complexity of taxing it fairly and effectively. This challenge is particularly acute in the online retail sector, especially in relation to imported low-value goods. Items shipped directly to consumers from abroad often bypass tax collection through de minimis exemptions—thresholds under which goods can enter a country free of duties or taxes. Although these exemptions were originally intended to reduce administrative burdens on customs authorities, they have increasingly been exploited to evade tax and trade rules, particularly amid the surge in low-cost imports from Asia. In response, governments around the world are…

Hola! This week, the newsletter is coming to you from (not so) sunny Spain, where I am attending a law conference. I’m lucky enough to be in Spain during the Copa del Rey, the oldest Spanish football (soccer for those of us in the U.S.) tournament played at a national level. But that’s not the only soccer news happening right now: Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti is defending himself in a Spanish court against charges of tax evasion. Ancelotti is accused of failing to pay over a million euros (US$1.1 million) in Spanish taxes related to image rights. Image rights—the…

The Trump administration’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world announced April 2 will raise government revenue in 2025 by $290 billion, or o.95% of GDP, constituting the biggest tax hike since 1982. This is according to calculations by the Tax Foundation. While the U.S. government has claimed that tariffs are a tax on foreign entities, a tariff is paid by the importer, which could in the case of the new tariffs most likely be an American company. Tariffs are then expected to be passed on to that company’s clients and ultimately consumers to offset the importer’s higher cost.…