Week in Insights: Stopping to Smell the Roses—or Cherry Blossoms

This is my favorite time of year to live in the Washington, D.C. area. Thousands of cherry blossom trees are in full bloom, filling the skies with little pink and white puffs and signaling that spring has officially arrived.

The flowering trees, concentrated near the Jefferson Memorial for more than a century, attract countless tourists and locals every year. The trees hit peak bloom early this year and, a week ago, I made the pilgrimage to see them at their brilliance up close.

What struck me was not the sheer volume of cherry blossom connoisseurs at the Tidal Basin at 9 a.m. but how quiet that many people could be. It was as if the beauty of the blossoms took their breath away, and all they could do was to look, smile, and pose for a picture.

Strolling around the Tidal Basin, with a light breeze carrying a few blossom petals through the air, reminded me how important it is to stop and appreciate beauty. It’s so easy to get caught up in the stress of deadlines and the frustration of everyday living. Taking time to simply enjoy what’s in front of you can help get you through even the roughest of patches.

Here at Bloomberg Tax, we thoroughly delight in and appreciate our community of tax professionals. Unlike the cherry blossoms, which come and go quickly, our commentary and insightful analysis on federal, state, and international tax issues is here for you all year round. And we take time to put it in perspective.

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—Rebecca Baker

The US Capitol is seen through cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., on March 27, 2023.

Photographer: Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

Quick Trivia

Washington, D.C., and Japan are famous for their cherry blossoms, but where is the cherry blossom capital of the world?
Answer at the bottom.

Federal Insights

The Supreme Court appeared keen to delineate how closely IRS-summoned records must be to a taxpayer’s assets to be considered “in aid of collection” under the law, in a case affecting the IRS’ ability to gather information by administrative summons, say Baker McKenzie’s Daniel Rosen and Eric Aberg.

Student loan borrowers should employ a tax adviser to help them prepare for the tax implications of treating canceled debt as income, says Zack Geist of Student Loan Tutor.

Excluding unrealized appreciation on portfolio stocks would remove a major potential source of corporate alternative minimum tax, says Alan S. Lederman of Gunster.

Limited liability companies take more time to set up but can offer some key advantages for freelancers and digital nomads. Esquire Group’s Jimmy Sexton shares how both US residents and nonresidents can use US LLCs.

Technology Insights

Companies that use automation technology for property tax compliance functions can minimize data entry, free up time and resources for other tasks, and reduce filing errors, says Avalara’s Carl Hoemke.

Technology will be part of the solution for taxpayers who want more—along with accountants who are willing to rethink the tax services they offer to meet the wants of buyers, says Jody Padar of April.

Global Insights

Paul Falvey of BDO reviews the measures affecting businesses in the recent UK budget and assesses the government’s growth plans.

Imposing a foreign tax on royalty income is creditable to US tax obligation if the foreign country’s sourcing rules are similar to the rules under the US tax code. Attorney Byoung Jo Kang shares how South Korea may be affected by new regulations.

Aditya Singh Chandel and Suhail Bansal of AZB & Partners consider a recent ruling of the Delhi High Court on the sufficiency of a tax residency certificate to claim tax treaty benefits, and explain why the decision will bring certainty for foreign investors in India.

A Closer Look

Passthrough entity tax regimes are generally good for PTE owners. But like so many state tax issues, the devil is in the details, and PTEs have to dig in to determine whether using a state’s PTE tax regime is worth the effort, Greenberg Traurig LLP’s Shail Shah and Nikki Dobay say in this edition of “A Closer Look.”

Commentary

Emory Law School’s Tonja Jacobi says her updated data shows that female US Supreme Court justices are still being interrupted more during oral argument than males, even after changes to the questioning procedure.

Congress has an oversight responsibility when it comes to tax programs in the US tax code. Taxpayers and voters are entitled to transparency when it comes to entitlement programs, says American University tax professor Caroline Bruckner.

After President Gabriel Boric’s comprehensive constitutional and tax reforms were rejected in the Chilean Congress, Ignacio Gepp of Puente Sur discusses whether the government may take a more pragmatic approach to reform going forward to provide much-needed tax revenue.

Columnists

The French tax code’s underlying language was written to run on processors that were about a third as powerful as the one in a cellphone. But despite its aging technical infrastructure, the French tax season plays out in a way that would seem like a fever dream for most American accountants and tax attorneys, writes Andrew Leahey.

Tokyo’s skytree is seen behind the cherry blossoms on March 28, 2023.

Photographer: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP via Getty Images

Career Moves

Kelly Aylward has joined Goulston & Storrs as a director in the private client and trust group in Boston.

Parker Taylor has joined Katten as a partner in the private wealth practice.

Jason Feingertz has been promoted by Hunton Andrews Kurth to counsel in New York.

Timothy McLain and Megan Durst have joined Dark Horse CPAs in Ohio.

If you are changing jobs or being promoted, let us know. You can email your submission to TaxMoves@bloombergindustry.com for consideration.

Spotlight

Our Spotlight series highlights the careers and lives of tax professionals around the world. This week’s Spotlight is on Brian Weaver, a partner at Stinson LLP who heads the firm’s tax credit and impact finance practice group in St. Louis.

News Roundup

It’s been another busy week in tax news from state capitals to Washington. Here are some stories you might have missed from our Bloomberg Tax news team.

*Note: Your Bloomberg Tax login will be required to access Tax News.

• Treasury on Friday released guidance for the electric vehicle tax credit, and the rules are set to leave fewer vehicles eligible for the credit due to sourcing requirements for battery components.
• The IRS and Treasury have proposed rules on the Superfund excise tax, a tax on certain chemical companies and importers for substances known to pollute, in addition to two pieces of accompanying guidance on the matter.
• Republican lawmakers are hashing out ways to compromise on the state and local tax deduction cap in the run-up to a deal they’re looking to make before 2024.
• Credit Suisse Group AG continues to help rich Americans hide assets from the IRS almost a decade after a unit pleaded guilty to tax evasion conspiracy, the US Senate Finance Committee said.
• Canada expects to raise new revenue of C$5.1 billion (US $3.8 billion) in the first two years after it imposes a global minimum tax on multinationals.
• Football clubs in England’s top division have been accused of avoiding tax on an industrial scale, with the Premier League alone accounting for £470 million ($582 million) in lost taxes since 2015.

Talking Tax

Grace Perez-Navarro sat down with Bloomberg Tax reporter Isabel Gottlieb this week ahead of her last day as director of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Center for Tax Policy and Administration. She talked about the status of remaining work on the agreement and what issues countries are still negotiating, as well as remote work taxation and how the OECD is helping governments discuss carbon taxes.

Perez-Navarro wrote an Insight for Bloomberg Tax in February about the challenges and opportunities that digital transformation create for tax systems throughout the world.

Our Wish List

What’s on our Bloomberg Tax Insights wish list right now? With April and the approach of Earth Day, we’re looking for some articles on green initiatives, including sustainability reporting, electric vehicle credits, renewable energy incentives, and carbon taxes, among other environmental tax topics. We’re also seeking cannabis pieces with a tax and accounting focus.

Our Insights articles—which are 1,000 words or fewer—are written by tax professionals offering expert analysis on current tax practice and policy issues, tax trends and topics, and tax and accounting firm practice and management. If you have an interesting, never-published article idea, we’d love to hear about it. You can contact our Insights team at TaxInsights@bloombergindustry.com.

Our Team

We talk about tax a lot. But there’s much more that you might hear us talking about if you popped into one of our Teams meetings. Here’s a quick look at what some of us are watching, reading, and listening to this week:

Watching:

• Katharine Butler (Acquisitions Manager, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): “You” on Netflix, which is quite gripping, but I’ve just realized there are four series—not sure if I’ll last.
• Andrew Leahey (Columnist, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): My wife and I just started Season 4 of “Love is Blind"—so far, it’s great mindless entertainment. My new hobby while watching is trying to imagine what all the sets and the pods look like in person.

Reading:

• Melanie Cohen (Senior Content Editor, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): “Good for a Girl” by distance runner Lauren Fleshman, a memoir that also delves into the deep inequities of women’s running.
• David Jolly (Senior Content Editor, Bloomberg Tax): “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World,” by Max Fisher. An interesting, sometimes infuriating, book that could probably use an update in the wake of the Twitter File revelations.
• Jessie Kamens (Editor-at-Large, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Law): “Room” by Emma Donoghue. Not a new title, but if you haven’t read it yet, it’s a page-turning thriller, great for a spring break trip or long-haul plane ride.

Listening:

• Rebecca Baker (Editor-at-Large, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): The new season of “You Must Remember This,” a storytelling podcast by Karina Longworth about the “secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century.”

Quick Trivia Answer

The cherry blossom capital of the world is Macon, Ga., which has more than 350,000 Yoshino cherry trees. The city also hosts the International Cherry Blossom Festival.

A blooming cherry blossom tree at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. on March 22, 2023.

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

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