Taxes

Condo bunco; life goes on; heavy metals; and other highlights of recent tax cases. Honolulu: Businessman Wagdy Guirguis and CPA Michael Higa have been convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. Guirguis was also convicted of three counts of filing false corporate income tax returns, one count of failure to file a corporate income…

Pluses of filing early; shutdown fallout; CAF problems; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers. Sense of security? Liberty Tax (http://www.libertytax.com/tax-lounge): What to tell them about the pluses of filing early, from possibly avoiding fraud or ID theft to knowing exactly what you do or don’t owe. The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): And remember,…

“Should I stay or should I go?” sang The Clash years ago. Residents of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California and other high-tax states are now singing a similar song. The thought of moving to a lower-tax state is more prevalent than ever in light of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act…

The Internal Revenue Service has released a draft version of the Form 1040 for tax year 2020 with several significant changes probably in store for next tax season. They include moving the question about virtual currency from the attached Schedule 1 to near the top of the main form, right under the name and address,…

Table of Contents Key Findings Individual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for 36 percent of state tax collections in fiscal year 2020, the latest year for which data are available. Forty-two states levy individual income taxes. Forty-one tax wage and salary income, while one state—New Hampshire—exclusively taxes dividend and…

A group of lawmakers in Ohio have proposed to repeal the state’s gross receipt tax (GRT), also known as the commercial activity tax (CAT). House Bill 234 would phase out the tax over five years. Ohio’s CAT, implemented in 2005 as part of tax reform that lowered and consolidated business taxes, is one of only a…

Policy and economic differences among OECD countries have created variances in how they raise tax revenue, with the United States deviating substantially from the OECD average on some sources of revenue. Different taxes create different economic impacts, so policymakers should always consider how tax revenue is raised and not just how much is raised. This…

Most countries’ personal income taxes have a progressive structure, meaning that the tax rate paid by individuals increases as they earn higher wages. The highest income tax rate individuals pay differs significantly across European OECD countries—as shown in today’s map. The top statutory personal income tax rate applies to the share of income that falls…