One year ago this week, I started learning Italian. It’s far from an immersion course—I spend a few minutes each day taking lessons from an array of cartoon characters on the Duolingo app. It’s vastly different from the way I learned French and Spanish, which was in a classroom every day with a teacher, taking tests, and getting graded.
I wanted to learn Italian after meeting my significant other’s family in Rome. Sitting at a table with his mother and sister and not understanding a single word being spoken was humbling. They couldn’t have been nicer and, thankfully, they knew a few basic phrases in English. But the experience sparked a drive to connect with two people who were now in my life, even if they were thousands of miles away most of the time.
Progress has been, well, slow—after a year, I can put together some simple sentences and point to things around the kitchen and say their names in italiano. But if I stay with it, I might learn enough to ask my significant other to parla con me.
Here at Bloomberg Tax, we speak the language of tax professionals. Our commentary and insightful analysis on federal, state, and international tax issues help translate complex guidance, proposed rules changes, and industry trends so you can understand them. We help you make the connections you need to communicate with i tuoi clienti.
The Exchange… It’s where great ideas intersect.
—Rebecca Baker
A view of Rome and the Vatican is seen from the Quirinale Palace.
Photographer: Ludovic Marin/ AFP via Getty Images
Quick Trivia
(Quiz Veloce)
The longest Italian word contains 26 letters. What is it?
Answer at the bottom.
State Insights
(Approfondimenti Stato)
Liberty Media Corp.’s spinoff of the Atlanta Braves shows tax practitioners the importance of heeding what is seemingly the simplest of the Section 355 requirements—the active business requirement, says tax and consulting firm president Robert Willens.
UConn Law Professor Richard D. Pomp delves into the details of the recent North Carolina Supreme Court decision in Quad Graphics Inc. v N.C. Dep’t of Revenue.
Federal Insights
(Approfondimenti Federali)
New guidance addressing the corporate alternative minimum tax suggests that Treasury will build out an extensive and complicated CAMT regime. Whether taxpayers and the IRS will be able to handle this complexity is an open question, says Monisha Santamaria of KPMG in Washington, D.C.
Debevoise & Plimpton attorneys Winston Paes and Stephen Petraeus analyze why the US Supreme Court dismissed a case that involved grand jury subpoenas for records related to a law firm’s work for a client on tax and cryptocurrency issues. They also offer implications for the legal and business communities.
Global Insights
(Approfondimenti Globali)
The OECD’s consultation document known as Amount B aims to simplify some transfer pricing rules, particularly for in-country baseline marketing and distribution activities. If revenue authorities could share more commonalities or be more flexible, it could help streamline the application of transactional net margin method benchmarking, say Deloitte Hong Kong’s Victor Zhang and Season Guo.
Recent EU actions such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive may soon expose US and other non-EU multinational corporations to a novel type of tax reporting. Businesses will need to set up new processes and procedures to meet these challenges, say Will Morris, Andy Wiggins, and Matt Timmons of PwC.
As online learning remains popular even with the easing of the pandemic, Dam Bao Ngoc and Lac Boi Tho of Grant Thornton look at the legal, regulatory, and tax-related requirements for overseas educational businesses providing such services in Vietnam.
Last year was quiet for new standards and amendments from the International Accounting Standards Board. But financial statement preparers should start getting ready for some changes that took effect this month, says Stout’s Mhalou Abadiano.
Richard McBride of Certino explains the increased tax challenges facing businesses with a global workforce and how technology can be used to address these.
Commentary
(Commento)
In a two-part article, Oliver R. Hoor and Samantha Schmitz of ATOZ Tax Advisers argue that the European Commission’s initiative for a new framework for corporate taxation doesn’t make sense, particularly considering the transformation of the international and European tax landscape following the OECD base erosion and profit shifting project.
A Closer Look
(Uno Sguardo Ravvicinato)
With little to no official guidance on applying sales tax to metaverse transactions, tax professionals need to perform case-by-case analyses—especially because many tax administrations and legislators don’t know what the metaverse is or how it operates, says Aleksandra Bal of Stripe in the latest edition of “A Closer Look.”
Columnists
(Editorialisti)
Illustration: Jonathan Hurtarte/Bloomberg Tax
Forcing people to have bank accounts seems like a burden on those who can least afford it, but no less so than a crypto-based solution. A Scandinavian community shows how simplifying the tax code and streamlining the process could be more effective than turning the unbanked population over to crypto wolves, Andrew Leahey writes.
Reader Responses
(Risposte dei Lettori)
At The Exchange, we welcome responses from our readers and encourage diversity and civil discussion. We are especially interested in responses that add to the conversation, or introduce a different point of view. If you have a response to one of our published Insights, we’d love to hear from you.
Career Moves
(Avanzamenti di Carriera)
Conrad Deitrick has joined Baker Donelson as of counsel in the tax group in Baltimore, the firm said.
Andre Happel will join Noerr as an equity partner in Frankfurt on Feb. 1, the law firm said.
K&L Gates has added seven corporate and private equity partners from a Dentons affiliate in Pittsburgh, the firm said.
If you are changing jobs or being promoted, let us know. You can email your submission to TaxMoves@bloombergindustry.com for consideration.
Spotlight
(Riflettore)
Our Spotlight series highlights the careers and lives of tax professionals across the globe. This week’s Spotlight is on Morris Armstrong, an enrolled agent who owns and runs a tax firm in Cheshire, Conn.
A scenic view of the countryside is seen near Brescia, Italy.
Photographer: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
News
(Notizia)
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.
- At the start of tax filing season, the Treasury Department highlighted efforts the IRS has taken to improve customer service using some of the funds it received in the Inflation Reduction Act.
- The landmark 2021 global tax deal is on its way to being implemented with at least the European Union set to enact the 15% global minimum tax next year and a goal to finish negotiations on the profit reallocation rules in the coming months.
- Republicans from high-tax states who oppose the cap on state and local tax deductions gained ground on key committees this Congress—and are pushing ahead on ways to work around the limit.
- Litigation by tech giants targeting Maryland’s first-in-the-nation tax on revenue from online advertising hasn’t dampened other states’ interest in taxing the digital economy, with bills already introduced in Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, and New York to impose new levies on e-commerce companies.
- Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) will chair the Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) will chair the Subcommittee on Tax, per an aide familiar with the committee’s plans.
Wish List
(Lista dei Desideri)
What’s on our Bloomberg Tax Insights wish list right now? For February, we’re looking for articles with an international focus. With the release of budgets in major countries such as the UK, India, and Canada, we want an expert’s take at the details of any proposed tax cuts or increases and how those changes would affect your practice and those of your clients. We also want take a close look at the role green subsidies will play in the budget plans and how they could impact businesses and your practice.
Our Insights articles—about 1,000 words—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 for publication, we’d love to hear about it. You can contact our Insights team at TaxInsights@bloombergindustry.com.
Our Team
(La Nostra Squadra)
We talk about tax a lot. But there’s a lot 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:
- Rebecca Baker (Editor at Large, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): A series of documentaries on Amazon Prime about female entertainers. The two best: “Wait for Your Laugh,” about the child singer turned comedic actress Rose Marie, and “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker,” about the vaudeville superstar who paved the way for countless female entertainers.
- Maria Menezes (Practice Lead, Insights & Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): “Winterwatch,” a series on BBC2 focusing on all the comings and goings of the UK’s animals and nature during the winter—beavers swimming under the ice, insects up to various winter activities—it’s very soothing.
Reading:
- Melanie Cohen (Editor, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): “Still Life” by Sarah Winman, a World War II-era novel that takes place in Italy.
- Rachael Daigle (News Director, Bloomberg Tax): “The Light We Carry” by Michelle Obama.
Listening:
- Andrew Leahey (Columnist, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): My deep dive into Ancient Egypt continues; I’ve been listening to the “History of Egypt Podcast.” It is really well done, and there is a back catalog of about 140 episodes to keep you sated.
- Katharine Butler (Acquisitions Manager, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): A conversation on YouTube on why we all need subtitles to watch films on TV now—80% of Netflix viewers do, apparently.
A man appears in the Venice lagoon with gondolas at sunrise.
Photographer: Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
Quick Trivia Answer
(Risposta al Quiz)
Italian’s longest word is precipitevolissimevolmente and means “in a way like someone or something that acts very hastily.”
Subscribe
(Sottoscrivi)
Sign up for your free copy of our newsletter delivered to your inbox each week. Just head over to The Exchange and sign up using the green “Free Newsletter Signup” box at the top—or just go directly to the newsletter sign-up page.
What Did You Think?
(Cosa Hai Pensato?)
Your feedback and suggestions are important to us, so don’t hesitate to email us directly at taxinsights@bloombergindustry.com.
