Tax Notes Talk

Anthony Infanti, professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and author of The Human Toll: Taxation and Slavery in Colonial America, discusses how taxation helped create and uphold the institution of slavery in Colonial America.

For more on Infanti's book, read Thorndike's review in Tax Notes, "Subjugation With a Budget Line: How Tax Law Protected Slavery."

**
Credits
Host: David D. Stewart
Executive Produ...

Tax Notes Capitol Hill reporter Cady Stanton previews what to expect from Congress this fall, from IRS funding to the possibility of a lame-duck tax package. 

For more, read the following in Tax Notes:

• House Sends Stopgap Funding Bill to Trump’s Desk
• Senate May Act on Chief Counsel, Tax Court Nominees After Recess
• All Eyes on Lame Duck for Last-Chance Tax Package in 2026

**
Credits
Host: David D. Stewart

Tax Notes legal reporter Trevor Sikes investigated how the qualified tips deduction under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has affected tipped workers in the year since the law's enactment.

Sikes and fellow legal reporter A.J. Collins interviewed the following people for this episode: 

• Morgan Harms, a server at William Jeffrey’s Tavern in Arlington, Virginia 
• Michael Chittenden, a lawyer with Covington and Burling&nb...

Freelance reporters Emilia Sroka and Roland Papp discuss paying taxes in Poland and Hungary and how the citizens in those countries feel about it. 

Listen to the full series: 

• Around the World in Taxes: the Netherlands and Brazil
• Around the World in Taxes: Greece and Italy

For more, read the tax morale series for free in Tax Notes:

• Church or State: Italian Income Taxes and Symbolic Choice
• Haratsi to I Krí...

Freelance reporters Olaf Geurts and Bárbara Mengardo discuss paying taxes in the Netherlands and Brazil and how the citizens in those countries feel about it. 

Listen to last week's episode: Around the World in Taxes: Greece and Italy

For more, read the tax morale series for free in Tax Notes:

• Church or State: Italian Income Taxes and Symbolic Choice
• Haratsi to I Krísi: Avoiding Taxes as an Act of Greek Patriotism
• &ls...

Tax Notes reporter Elodie Lamer and freelance reporter Matteo Rizzi discuss paying taxes in Greece and Italy and how the citizens in those countries feel about it. 

For more, read the tax morale series for free in Tax Notes:

• Church or State: Italian Income Taxes and Symbolic Choice
• Haratsi to I Krísi: Avoiding Taxes as an Act of Greek Patriotism

**
Credits
Host: David D. Stewart
Executive Producers: Jea...

Brandon DeBot of the Tax Law Center at New York University discusses President Trump’s lawsuit and subsequent settlement with the IRS, where things stand with the "Anti-Weaponization" Fund, and potential legal ramifications. 

For more, read the following articles in Tax Notes:

• Judge Dismisses 'Anti-Weaponization' Fund Challenge as Moot
• DOJ’s Reversal on Trump Fund Proves Collusion, Former Judges Say
• Government File...

Tax Notes contributing editor Carrie Brandon Elliot discusses the rising interest in universal basic income, especially as artificial intelligence disrupts the job market, and the role of tax policy in paying for it.

For more, read Brandon Elliot's article, "Pandemic and Precariat: AI Courts Universal Basic Income," for free in Tax Notes.

**
Credits
Host: David D. Stewart
Executive Producers: Jeanne Rauch-Zender, Paige Jones...

Brian Reed of Alvarez & Marsal discusses the application of the economic substance doctrine in Liberty Global Inc. v. United States and the questions raised by the Tenth Circuit's interpretation.

For more, read the following articles in Tax Notes:

• Otay Wants to Rebrief Dispute Over Basis Adjustment, IRS Says
• Liberty Global Has Tax Pros Fretting Over Planning Uncertainty
• Government Wins Economic Substance Battle in Lib...

Four international tax policy experts discuss the details of the OECD side-by-side package deal on the global minimum tax framework and how implementation is going both in the United States and abroad. 

For the entire discussion, watch or listen to "Global Minimum Tax Coordination After the Side-by-Side Agreement."

**
Credits
Host: David D. Stewart
Executive Producers: Jeanne Rauch-Zender, Paige Jones
Producer: Jorda...

Tax Notes reporters Paul Jones and Emily Hollingsworth discuss how bias in artificial intelligence can affect automated systems that select taxpayers for audits and what their investigation of California's and New York’s audit selection processes revealed.

For more, read Jones and Hollingsworth's investigation for free: "Unwatched: How State Audit Selection Systems Bypass Oversight."

**
Credits
Host: David D. Stewart
E...

Three policy experts discuss the uncertain future of the OECD's global tax framework amid stalled progress and waning consensus, during a live recording from the American Bar Association Section of Taxation May meeting.

For more, read the following articles in Tax Notes:

• Slovenia Starts Piloting Submission of Pillar 2 Minimum Tax Returns
• Switzerland Weighs Delaying OECD Pillar 2 Deferred Tax Guidance
• More Work on Pillar 2 Reporting...

Professor Sakinah Tillman of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law discusses how the complexities of state tax debt collections disadvantage low-income taxpayers.

For more, read Tillman's article, "Impact of Vague State Tax Collection Alternatives on Low-Income Taxpayers."

Listen to more Tax Notes Talk episodes from our critical tax theory series:

• Addressing Tax Policy Challenges for Workers With...

Professor Lauren Shores Pelikan of the University of Missouri School of Law discusses her proposal to create a tax benefit for individual childcare service providers to ease costs for working parents.

For more on Shores Pelikan's proposal, read "Toddlers, Investors, and Tax Policy."

For more on the LendingTree study, read "It Costs an Additional $303,418 to Raise a Child Over 18 Years, Up 1.9%."

**
Credits
Host: David D. Stewart...

Former IRS Criminal Investigation division Chief Guy Ficco examines the agency's future, including immigration enforcement and the use of artificial intelligence, as his decades-long tenure ends.

For more on the IRS Criminal Investigation division, read the following in Tax Notes:

• IRS Criminal Investigators Pull Back From Immigration, Policing
• Firmness of IRS Voluntary Disclosure Policy Worries Tax Lawyers
• J5 Warns of Use of Crypto...

Benjamin Angel, director of direct taxation at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, discusses the EU’s biggest tax challenges right now, including windfall taxes and the side-by-side package. 

For more, read the following in Tax Notes:

• EU Draft Floats Binding Measures to Reduce Electricity Taxes
• Tax Cuts Don’t Pay for Themselves, EU Commission Says
• Simplify Pillar...