Tax Chats
Episodes
Tax Tune - Away to Pay Taxes (re-release)
24 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAway to Pay Taxes (to the tune of Away in the Manger)Re-release (originally released Christmas, 2021)Lyrics by Jeff Hoopes, Sung by Stac...
Tax Tune - I Heard the Bells (of tax reform!)
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn honor of the fifth anniversary of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act...I Heard the Bells (of tax reform!)Sung to the tune of I Heard the Bells...
New Information on Trump's Tax Returns: A Chat with Daniel Hemel
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff chat with Daniel Hemel about the House Ways and Means Committee "Report on the Internal Revenue Service's Manda...
Happy Birthday, TCJA! Kyle Pomerleau talks about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
16 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017. In honor of its birth five whole years ago, we talk with the America...
Taxing Stock Buybacks: A Chat with Daniel Hemel
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff chat with Daniel Hemel, Law Professor at New York University about the recently enacted excise tax on share repurchases o...
How do Capital Gains Taxes Affect Stock Prices? A Chat with Doug Shackelford.
02 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the effect of capital gains taxes on stock prices with Douglas A. Shackelford, former Dean of UNC's Kenan-...
Are Craisins Candy? Must have tax information before Thanksgiving
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss what constitutes candy, for sales tax purposes, in North Carolina. The discussion ends with the verdict on craisi...
How will corporations respond to the tax on book income? A chat with Todd Castagno
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textTodd Castagno, an equity research analyst at Morgan Stanley, responds to a list of possible ways corporations might react to the tax...
Thinking in a Tank about Taxes: Chatting about the Tax Foundation with Daniel Bunn
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff talk about Tax Foundation with CEO and President Daniel Bunn. We talk about its missions, where it gets funding, and othe...
Anniversary Edition! Rebranding, and chatting about tax headlines
04 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textTax Chats is officially one year old! In honor of this anniversery, Scott and Jeff talk through a potential rebranding of Tax Chats with...
Taxing the Things You Buy. A conversation with Whitney Afonso about Sales Taxes.
28 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this episode Scott and Jeff discuss Sales Taxes with Whitney Afonso. We discuss sales tax basics, including the difference between wh...
Taxing Student Loan Forgiveness: A Conversation with Senator Phil Berger, President Pro Tempore of the NC State Senate
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this episode we talk about the tax consequences of student loan forgiveness. Generally, debt forgiveness is treated as income, and is...
Going Retro With Tax Headlines
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss recent headlines from the New York Times:Opinion | There Is a Tax That Could Help With Inflation - The New York T...
The Chats that Might Have Been.
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss several people Jeff has invited to be on the show, but who have (as of yet!) been unable to make a Tax Chats appe...
Breaking Down Pillar I of the OECD's Inclusive Framework with Heydon Wardell Burrus.
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss Pillar 1 of the OECD's Inclusive Framework with Heydon Wardell Burrus of the Centre for Business Taxation at...
Taxes in Sitcoms. A Conversation with Larry Zelenak.
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff chat with Larry Zelenak, Professor at the Duke Law School about taxes in sitcoms. Larry has documented the extensive list...
Taxing Tobacco: A Conversation with Mike Lovenheim
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this episode, Scott and Jeff discuss the some of the fascinating details related to the taxation of tobacco. We often think of the ta...
Does (did?!?) the Queen of England pay Income Taxes?
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff quizzes Scott about the tax status of the Royal Family in England.Long live the Queen.
Un-Adjusting the Tax Code by Taxing Adjusted Financial Accounting Income in the Inflation Reduction Act
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textDespite our best efforts to inform the world about the perils of taxing financial statement income, the Corporate Alternative Minimum Ta...
Tax Inspectors Without Borders. A Conversation with Rusudan Kemularia.
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss a program called Tax Inspectors Without Borders with Rusudan Kemularia, Head of Tax Inspectors Without Borders. T...
Tax Tidbits from a recent Trip (which could be true!)
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff and Scott discuss some interesting tax-related observations Jeff made while visiting Oxford University and Mannheim University in E...
Does the IRS really have guns? Debunking some recent fear mongering
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the $80 billion in additional funding that has been allocated to the IRS as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, ...
The Book Minimum Tax -- A Compilation of Thoughts
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this special episode, we compile several recordings that we have made over the past year related to the proposed alternative minimum ...
Taxing Carried Interest with Vic Fleischer
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss "carried interest" with Vic Fleischer, Professor of Law at UC Irvine. Carried interest is a special typ...
Taxed by the Taliban with Ashley Jackson
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff learn from Ashley Jackson how the Taliban create a tax. We discuss how the tax system evolved initially to generate reven...
How An Academic Changed Corporate Tax Reporting. A Conversation with Dean Lilian Mills on the Creation of Schedule M3.
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the creation of schedule M3 with Lillian Mills, Dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas...
Anti Progressive Taxation
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss some of the prominent arguments against progressive taxation.
Taxing Churches with Lloyd Mayer
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the tax status of churches in the U.S. with Lloyd Mayer, Professor of Law at Notre Dame University. We discuss ...
Why Administrative Law is Way More Important than You Thought! A conversation with Andy Grewal.
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff ask Andy Grewal to describe administrative law, and why it is so important for taxes. We discuss how significant portions...
How Much Income do Firms Shift to Tax Havens? A Conversation w/Jennifer Blouin.
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss income shifting by multinational corporations with Jennifer Blouin. We talk about Jennifer's research that s...
Professor Arthur Laffer on His Curve
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the effects the tax rate has on how much taxes are raised with Professor Arthur Laffer, for whom the Laffer Cur...
Taxing Robots w/Rita de la Feria
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff are joined by Rita de la Feria @delaFeriaR to discuss her new paper (co-authored with Maria Amparo Grau Ruiz) called &quo...
Was Trump's Tax Reform Effective?
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss whether the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was effective. Often referred to as the Trump tax cuts, or the Trump Tax...
The "Secret IRS Files": A Conversation with ProPublica's Paul Kiel
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott, Jeff, and Paul Kiel discuss the series of articles published by ProPublica based on a massive leak of private tax return data on ...
Tax Short - Why do quarters have ridges, and what does it have to do with taxes (and inflation!)?
06 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff explains why quarters have ridges, and what it has to do with taxes and inflation.
Should death eliminate taxes? A conversation about carryover basis with Kathleen Thomas
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the idea of carryover basis with Kathleen Thomas. Currently, when someone dies with appreciated capital gains, th...
A Bigger Burden for Billionaires? David Gamage on Biden's Mega Millionaire Minimum Tax
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss Biden's proposed Mega Millionaire Minimum Tax with David Gamage, one of the thought-leaders behind the propo...
Progressive Taxation: What is it? Why would we want it? Do we have it?
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss progressive taxation. While most agree progressive taxation is desirable, there is less agreement about how much ...
Should we even tax corporations? It's not as obvious as you might think.
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the reasons a corporate tax makes sense. The answers might surprise you. Among the least compelling arguments: co...
Crypto Tax -- About as Simple as it Sounds. A Conversation with Tyler Menzer
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss Crypto taxes with Tyler Menzer, PhD student at the University of Iowa studying the tax implications of Crypto cur...
A Private Score: Rich Prisinzano on the Penn Wharton Budget Model
30 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff talk with Rich Prisinzano of the Penn Wharton Budget Model about revenue scoring. Scott, Jeff and Rich discuss topics suc...
What is Tax Justice? A Conversation with Amy Hanauer, Executive Director of Citizens for Tax Justice and ITEP
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss tax justice with Amy Hanauer, Executive Director of Citizens for Tax Justice and its sister organization, ITEP (I...
Tax Short - Do the Girl Scouts have to pay taxes on their cookie income?
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff explains how some non-profits owe income taxes on the unrelated business income, but, how because of the mission of the Girls Scout...
Have your Cake and Eat it too? Why Tax Accounting and Financial Accounting are Different.
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this episode, Scott and Jeff discuss why financial accounting rules and tax accounting rules are different. They give some examples. ...
Taxing Cannabis: A Conversation with Caroline Weber
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss Cannabis taxation with economist Caroline Weber. We chat about the history of cannabis taxation, the advantage of...
Protecting People from Politicians by Pledge: A Chat with Grover Norquist
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff interview Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). We discuss the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which ...
Are tax boycotts a real thing?
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss tax boycotts. Some corporate mangers say they are careful with their tax planning because they don't want to...
The Good Ol' Days of Bipartisan Tax Reform: A Conversation with Ken Kies about the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86)
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff talk with Ken Kies about TRA86, the last major tax reform since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Ken was the Chief Republican T...
The War Tax Resister: A Conversation with Lincoln Rice
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff interview Lincoln Rice, Coordinator of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, a group which would have y...
Tax Tune - Capital Gains Sea Shanty
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCapital Gains Sea ShantySung by Dyreng's DeductionsLyrics by Jeff HoopesThere once was a man who bought some stockIn a little firm ...
Tax Short - Can Stepped-Up Basis Help You Save Taxes?
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott explains the step-up in basis loophole. He describes how it can help you pass your wealth to your heirs tax efficiently.
The In(Ex)clusive Framework: A Conversation with Afton Titus on Why the Global Minimum Taxes Might Harm Developing Countries
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAre big countries bullying developing countries under the guise of the OECD's Inclusive Framework? It the framework really inclusiv...
Tax Short - Is Inflation a tax?
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff talks about the relationship between taxes and inflation, and, introduces us to the term seigniorage.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Tax Perjury Trial: A conversation with Edgar Dyer
15 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textMartin Luther King Jr. is the only person to have ever been tried for perjury with regards to state income taxes in Alabama. Jeff and Sc...
Realizations about Realization
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the principle of realization. As a general rule, most income taxes are levied when it is realized, usually when a...
Tax Tune - Taxes Taxes, Where's my Refund?
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textTaxes Taxes, Where's my RefundTaxes TaxesWhere’s my refund?Taxes TaxesI’m so angryCuz I paid too muchand April is so far away (...
Tax Short - Should You Invest in a Roth IRA or a Traditional IRA?
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott discusses one of the factors contributing to whether you should invest in a Roth IRA or a Traditional IRA.
Tax the Billionaires' (Income)!? A Conversation with Brian Galle About Taxing Unrealized Gains.
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff welcome Brian Galle, Professor of Law at Georgetown University to discuss the proposed Billionaires' Income Tax, whi...
Tax Short - How many billionaires are there, and, how much are they worth?
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff describes how knowing how many billionaires there are and how much wealth they have, a key component to estimating how much revenue...
An Audio Tour of the Tax Museum
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff talks with Scott about a few of The Tax Museum's thousands of items. Jeff shows Scott a stack of expired lotto tickets purchas...
Tax Tune - Tax Advice
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textLyrics by Scott DyrengSung by Scott Dyreng and Three of Dyreng's DeductionsLyricsTax Advice, Tax AdviceSo many options confuse me.R...
Tax Short - Can You Reduce Your Tax Bill by Bundling Charitable Contributions?
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott describes a year-end tax planning technique called bundling.
I'll Have One Large Offensive Lineman with a Tax Deduction on the Side, Please. (A Conversation with Brian Mittendorf.)
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff are joined by Brian Mittendorf from THE Ohio State University to discuss not-for-profit entities. We discuss the recent c...
Tax Tune - Away to Pay Taxes
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAway to pay Taxes (to the tune of Away in the Manger)Lyrics by Jeff Hoopes, Sung by Stacey HoopesOh Joseph and MaryThey were there for ...
Tax Short - What do Taxes Have to Do with Christmas?
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff describes what taxes have to do with Christmas. Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to be taxed (or maybe to be counted, so they coul...
Do You See OECD? A Discussion with Tom Neubig on the OECD's Global Minimum Tax
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott and Jeff discuss the OECD's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project with Tom Neubig, a former Economist with the OECD...
Tax Short - Why is it so Hard to Tax Giant Multinational Companies?
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott describes why it is so difficult to tax giant multinational companies.
Tax Short - Don’t let Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) get in the way of tax loss harvesting
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn a recent episode of Tax Chats, Scott and Jeff had a little disagreement over a potential downside of tax loss harvesting. In this sho...
Capitalizing on Capital Gains Tax Breaks
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff and Scott discuss how to legally reduce or avoid paying capital gains taxes. We use Satya Nadella's recent sale of half his st...
Tax Short - How can I pay nothing in taxes?
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff explains how it should never be the goal to pay nothing in taxes, but, rather, as far as your financial life goes, to maximize your...
Tax Short - Do Domestic Companies Pay More Tax than Multinational Companies
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott discusses whether domestic companies pay more tax than multinational companies. The episode addresses a commonly held belief that ...
Ignoring Scoring is Deploring
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe discuss "scoring" with Brigham Young University Professor John Barrick. Scoring is the process used to determine how much r...
Tax Short - Do Most Public Companies Pay Low or No Tax?
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott discusses the common narrative that most large publicly traded companies pay very low or no income tax.
Tax Short - What is a fair tax?
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff talks about fair taxes. People always say they want a fair tax system, or that they want people to pay their fair share. What would...
Insights or Incites? Elizabeth Warren's Report on "Tax Dodgers"
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff and Scott discuss a recent report released by Senator Elizabeth Warren's office entitled "Tax Dodgers: How Billionaire Co...
Tax Short - Is a 4% Wealth Tax the Same as a 120% Income Tax?
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff discusses wealth and income tax rates. We are used to thinking of tax rates on income. How do we think about tax rates on wealth? L...
Tax Short - How Much do Millionaires Pay in Tax?
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott discusses how much tax millionaires pay. Millionaires and Billionaires are often used in the same way to describe someone who is r...
Ask the Option Tax-Ologist
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe discuss tax issues related to stock options. The discussion is related to Elon Musk's recent infamous twitter poll, in which he ...
Tax Short - Why Don't Billionaires Pay Tax?
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff describes why many billionaires don't pay any tax (or at least pay rates of tax that are far lower than millionaires). He disc...
Tax Short - The Pros and Cons of Taxing GAAP (the Amazon Tax)
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott explains why companies have two separate accounting systems, one for reporting income to shareholders (GAAP), and one for reportin...
The BBB (Build Back Better) Potpouri
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe discuss some of the not-so-talked-about provisions in the Build Back Better tax plan, including (but not limited to) tax credits for ...
Tax Short - How Much Tax Should a Socially Responsible Firm Pay?
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJeff briefly discusses how much tax a socially responsible firm should pay. He explains that a dollar of tax paid might translate to one...
Tax Short - How Salesforce.com Paid No Tax on $2.6 Billion in Profits
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScott describes how Salesforce.com used tax deductions from share-based compensation to reduce its U.S. tax bill to $0 despite reporting...
A Billionaires Tax? Is it a wealth tax? Could it happen?
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe discuss the recent proposal for a billionaire's tax. We describe the tax, discuss how it could force the very rich to pay more i...
The Tax on GAAP is Back (or at least proposed)
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe discuss the recently proposed 15% corporate minimum tax to be applied to financial accounting earnings. The idea was proposed by Sena...
Building Back Better with SALT-y Tax Cuts for the Rich?
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe discuss the recently proposed removal of the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes. The restriction would largely benefit w...