Lone Star steal; Matchmaker, Matchmaker; under pressure; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.
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Clowning around
Taxable Talk : Our favorite headline of the week: “Bozo Tax Tip #7: Hot Air.” “Congress has decided to legislate through the Tax Code. There are hundreds of tax credits that now exist. Some of these credits, such as the Earned Income Credit, are refundable credits: You can get a refund based on the credit even if you don’t have income. Now, the Bozo mind works differently. They see a tax credit and think, ‘How can I get some free money? I’ll find a tax credit and the government will just send me money!’ So our Bozo looks and finds there’s a tax credit available for recovering methane from landfills. Our enterprising Bozo sets up the Hot Air Gas Company, and starts claiming the credit. Our Bozo skips the somewhat important step of actually obtaining some methane from a landfill.”National Association of Tax Professionals : The IRS is seeing an increase in abusive claims involving Form 2439, “Notice to Shareholder of Undistributed Long-Term Capital Gains.” Filing a fraudulent Form 2439 claim includes overstated or fabricated undistributed long-term capital gains tied to entities that are not legitimate investment funds or valid real estate trusts. As enforcement activity increases, tax professionals can help their clients avoid concerns by carefully reviewing any return claiming this credit. The good news for most of these taxpayers is that most tax pros are reputable and do a good job. But most is not all.ITEP : California Gov. Gavin Newsom went to Texas recently and addressed some false claims that Lone Star State leaders like to make about taxes. “Texas taxes poor folks more than we tax our richest,” he said. He’s right. In fact, poor families in Texas pay a higher share of their income in taxes — 12.8% — than is paid by any income group in California.
Top three priorities
Vertex : Corporate finance trends have significant implications on indirect tax groups, so it’s no surprise that the same connection holds for CFO priorities. As part of its ongoing CFO signals survey research, Deloitte asked 200 finance chiefs at North American companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue to select their top three priorities for this year.Yeo and Yeo : Among employers, the notion of focusing more on skills than education when hiring has gained momentum over the last several years. A recent survey indicates the trend is continuing.The Tax Times : Ten years after the explosive revelations of the Panama Papers, a new report from Oxfam paints a stark picture of how extreme wealth inequality and tax evasion have only deepened. According to the analysis released on April 2, the richest 0.1% of people now hold more untaxed wealth in offshore accounts than the combined wealth of the poorest half of the global population of about 4.1 billion people.
Help me ChatGPT
Mauled Again : The headline: “I asked ChatGPT for tax help — experts say I fell into a classic trap almost says it all.” This article elaborates on what happened to the author — one of many taxpayers who prepare their own returns.Rosenberg Associates : Our favorite post from April 1: With all the M&A activity in public accounting today, buyers and sellers alike will benefit from Cringe, a new agentic AI matchmaking app that surveys potential buyers and sellers on your behalf and constructs responses as if they’re from you, freeing up time for you to spend on compliance work.Withum : As the Financial Times reported on April 2, the U.S. Treasury is urging regulators to convene now on the risks building in private credit — an indication that concerns around governance gaps in the sector are beginning to intensify.
Ocean liner on a slalom course
Sovos : How is tax on AI evolving? Explore AI sales tax rules, software-as-a-service treatment and what businesses need to know as states adapt to emerging technologies. The answer appears simple — subscription AI chatbot services either fall within a state’s existing sales tax structure for SaaS, or they don’t. However, as with digital goods and streaming services in the past, attempts by a few states to fit new technologies into an existing legal framework can be as awkward as an ocean liner taking on a slalom course.Tax Foundation : The 2026 filing season is the first to reflect new tax changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including deductions for tips, overtime, auto loan interest and senior citizens. Tax filers are likely to see larger tax refunds than usual because the tax cuts enacted for calendar year 2025 were not reflected in IRS withholding tables, leaving many taxpayers overwithheld for the year.
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