Warren and realism; how partners slide; protecting clients’ cards; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Resistance is feudal

• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has proposed a number of new taxes on high-income households. Add them up and many of the very wealthiest could pay a marginal effective tax rate on their investments that exceeds 100 percent. Not to mention taxing assets as well as returns.
• Tax, Society Culture (http://taxpol.blogspot.com/): A look at how tax policy can be a tool to support sustainable economic growth.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): How taxes might be the last bulwark against modern feudalism.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): A new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development assesses the impact of the U.S.-imposed tariffs on imports from China, U.S. import prices and U.S. imports. As often happens in wars both physical and tariff, nobody’s really winning.

Bank error

• Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): Did you know that, according to the FDIC, more than 6 percent of American households do not have or use a bank? Not everyone has access to a secure banking service. What does that mean to you and your clients at tax time?
• Intuit ProConnect (http://taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com/): Special tax rules for those who serve, including military pay in combat zones, moving expenses and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): Perspectives on next year’s economic outlook of the manufacturing industry. Expectations are high — especially when it comes to automation.
• Wolters Kluwer (http://news.cchgroup.com/): A look at the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s issuing of ASU No. 2019-08, which will affect companies that issue share-based payments (e.g., options or warrants) to their customers.

Jockeying

• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): In United States v. Tanco-Baez, the court recognized that the corpus delicti for some offenses — unlike the corpus delicti for, say, homicide — is not “tangible.” For example, tax evasion is an offense that lacks a “tangible” corpus delicti because the offense results in no “physical damage to person or property.”
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): What does the new Individual Health Insurance Mandate mean for California taxpayers? To date, Maryland, Hawaii and Connecticut proposed individual mandate bills but didn’t pass them; the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Vermont and Massachusetts did.
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/index.html): States can source sales by the location of the seller (the origin of the sale, a.k.a. origin sourcing), or the location where the consumer receives the item or service (the destination of the sale, a.k.a. destination sourcing). Most states use destination sourcing. Most, but sure not all.
• Bloomberg Tax (https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/): A pair of lawyers, after success in rejiggering “jock taxes” charged to athletes in Tennessee and Ohio, are eyeing Pittsburgh as their next arena. Jock taxes are the various state income taxes levied on professional athletes for games they play outside their home state. Players from the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and the National Football League are suing Pittsburgh for what they claim is an illegally high tax on nonresident athletes who play in the city.

Wouldn’t it be nice?

• Turbotax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/): What to remind them about “5 Ways to Boost Next Year’s Tax Refund Now,” from withholding allowances and deductions (“Wouldn’t it be nice if you could open a file and the documents you need to file your taxes are there?”) to retirement savings.
• Sagenext (https://www.thesagenext.com/blog): Reformed IRS rules and new forms spawned by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have lent much merriment to preparing for tax season — and no less so for clients, who “while whittling down the tax bills…end up paying more cash to the federal government tax agency every year (for various known/unknown reasons) than their actual tax liability.” The how and why of speedier refunds.
• Tax Girl (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/): A look at IRS inflation adjustments for 2020, including rate schedules, tables and cost of living adjustments.
• Don’t Mess With Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Favorite opening of the week: “The hubby and I just finished reviewing our annual health care coverage. It was not fun.” A look at the tax breaks can help offset some of the ever-increasing wellness costs and the many medically related tax laws adjusted each year for inflation.

Carded

• Solutions For CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): Typical morning? You’re a partner and it bothers you when people aren’t punctual. Yet you often come into the office late and others seem to think it’s okay. You cut a corner or make a minor goof and your experience and seniority carry you through with your just a chuckle from staff. Are they really letting you slide — and should you even be allowed to?
• Musings of a Burbank CPA (https://briantstonercpa.com/blog/): Does your practice ask clients for their credit card numbers? It’s essential that you honor the privacy of that private data as well as stay in compliance with the Payment Card Industry rules.