Jeff and Scott chat with Partho Shome about taxes  in the colonial era in India, especially the excise tax on salt. They then discuss how these taxes lead to the famous "salt march" led by Mahatma Gandhi, which ultimately lead to Indian Independence.  This experience is contrasted to the American independance movement, which also had roots in taxes levied by the British East India Company, and lessons for modern tax policy are discussed.  Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmark ..read more

Recorded on April 15, Jeff and Scott Chat about tax code complexity. Why is the tax code so complex? Is it because life is complex? Because we have chosen to hone the tax code to achieve certain social goals? Jeff and Scott chat about it all in light of Scott not being able to complete his tax code until the very last moment ..read more

Scott and Jeff chat with Nic Duquette, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. We discuss charitable giving, tax deductions related to charitable giving, tax exempt organizations, and the like. Listener submitted correction: "there is no longer an above-the-line charitable deduction for cash contributions for tax years after 2021 (it was a temporary Covid-era provision as Scott had thought in asking the question). It was first enacted in the CARES Act for tax year 2020 only - prior law sec. 62(a)(22). It was then extended to tax year 2021, the final year it was in ..read more

Jeff and Scott chat with Samford University law professor Tracey Roberts about Cordell Hull. Hull was a senator, secretary of state, and, won the Nobel Prize for his role in creating the United Nations. However, he also had a substantial role in creating the income tax, which Tracey, Jeff and Scott discuss.  This episode is based on Professor Roberts article, "A Man for His Era and for Ours: Cordell Hull, Father of the Federal Income Tax", published in the Cumberland Law Review. Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are p ..read more

Jeff and Scott chat with Clyde Ray, a political scientist and author of the book John Marshall's Constitutionalism, about the Supreme Court case McCulloch v Maryland, which hinged on whether a state could tax a federal bank.  In this case, John Marshall teaches us that "the power to tax involves the power to destroy ..read more

Jeff and Scott chat with  Alexander Arnon. Alex serves as the Director of Business Tax and Economic Analysis at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, and he explains  the Wyden-Smith tax deal, including the extension of the business tax components of the TCJA, the expansion of the child tax credit, and the Employee Retention Credit. Alex talks about the background on the deal, as well as how Penn Wharton provided their revenue estimate. Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to do ..read more

Jeff and Scott chat with Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the President of the American Action Forum, former director of the CBO,  and former chief economic policy adviser to Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Doug has also testified before Congress more than anyone else that did not do so as a requirement of their job. Jeff and Scott discuss the purpose of Congressional testimony, who is asked to do it, and some of Doug's experiences testifying. Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmar ..read more

Jeff and Scott chat with Wojciech Kopczuk, professor of Economics at Columbia University, an editor at the Journal of Public Economics, and IgNobel Prize Winner, about the trends in income inequality. The long-standing received wisdom is that income inequality is high, and growing higher. A recent paper published in the Journal of Political Economy by Gerry Auten and David Splinter call into question that finding. Jeff, Scott and Wojciech talk about the difficulties in measuring income inequality, its consequences, etc. Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approx ..read more

Jeff and Scott chat with Laura Snyder, an advocate for an improved tax system for Americans living abroad.  Laura is currently the  President of Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation, (SEAT) and is also an American living abroad. They talk about the different types of Americans living abroad, and how their lives are complicated by the American tax system. Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to download the free app. Go to the Tax Chats channel, register for the course ..read more

This episode originally aired on January 15, 2022. Martin Luther King Jr. is the only person to have ever been tried for perjury with regards to state income taxes in Alabama. Jeff and Scott interview Edgar Dyer about the tax perjury trial of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1960. Eddie wrote an article entitled "A Triumph of Justice in Alabama: The 1960 Perjury Trial of Martin Luther King, Jr." Fred Grey, Martin Luther King's attorney, said of the trial, "No one would have predicted that an all-white jury in Montgomery, Alabama, the Cradle of the Confederacy, in May 1960, in the middle of all the ..read more