Category Archives: US taxation

IRS commissioner’s removal reportedly over clash on undocumented immigrant data

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Trump removed Billy Long from post months after agency said it couldn’t release information on some taxpayers

The removal of the Internal Revenue Service commissioner Billy Long after just two months in the post came after the federal tax collection agency said it could not release some information on taxpayers suspected of being in the US illegally, it was reported on Saturday.

The IRS and the White House had clashed over using tax data to help locate suspected undocumented immigrants soon before Long was dismissed by the administration, according to the Washington Post.

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Planned Parenthood CEO warns budget bill could devastate group and slash abortion access in blue states

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Alexis McGill Johnson says nearly 200 health centers could close if US House passes sweeping tax-and-spending bill

Planned Parenthood stands to lose roughly $700m in federal funding if the US House passes Republicans’ massive spending-and-tax bill, the organization’s CEO said on Wednesday, amounting to what abortion rights supporters and opponents alike have called a “backdoor abortion ban”.

“We are facing down the reality that nearly 200 health centers are at risk of closure. We’re facing a reality of the impact on shutting down almost half of abortion-providing health centers,” Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of Americas’s CEO, said in an interview Wednesday morning. “It does feel existential. Not just for Planned Parenthood, but for communities that are relying on access to this care.”

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Eyes on Senate Republicans as Trump and Musk feud over tax and spend bill

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Lawmakers still weighing whether to pass ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ at root of rift between US president and tech boss

As the simmering tensions between Donald Trump and his once top adviser, the billionaire Elon Musk, erupted into public view on Thursday, eyes turned to the Republican lawmakers still weighing whether to pass the president’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill”.

It was approved by just a single vote in the House of Representatives with no Democratic support last month, and nonpartisan analysts have found the sweeping legislation could add a whopping $2.4tn-$5tn to the $36.2tn US national debt and make deep cuts to Medicaid and food-assistance programs. Seen as an outline of Trump’s “America first” agenda, the bill would also extend tax cuts, fund beefed-up immigration enforcement and impose new work requirements for enrollees of federal safety net programs.

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US budget chief calls fears that cuts to benefits will lead to deaths ‘totally ridiculous’

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Russ Vought defends Trump’s sweeping tax-cut bill that will slash safety net programs Medicaid and Snap

The White House budget director Russ Vought on Sunday dismissed as “totally ridiculous” fears expressed by voters that cuts to benefits in the huge spending bill passed by the House will lead to premature deaths in America.

Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill act, now awaiting debate in the US Senate, will slash two major federal safety net programs, Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps people afford groceries, which will affect millions of people if it becomes law.

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Top Republicans threaten to block Trump’s spending bill if national debt is not reduced

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Prominent US senators warn Trump to ‘get serious’ about addressing budget deficit or they will block ‘beautiful bill’

Donald Trump has been warned by fiscal hawks within his own party in the US Senate that he must “get serious” about cutting government spending and reducing the national debt or else they will block the passage of his signature tax-cutting legislation known as the “big, beautiful bill”.

Ron Johnson, the Republican senator from Wisconsin who rose to prominence as a fiscal hardliner with the Tea Party movement, issued the warning to the president on Sunday. Asked by CNN’s State of the Union whether his faction had the numbers to halt the bill, he replied: “I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.”

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House passes Trump’s sweeping tax-cut bill, sends it to Senate

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Measure would tighten eligibility for health and food programs for the poor and could add $3.8tn to US debt

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives narrowly passed a sweeping tax and spending bill that would enact much of President Donald Trump’s policy agenda on Thursday and saddle the country with trillions of dollars in debt.

The bill would fulfill many of Trump’s populist campaign pledges, delivering new tax breaks on tips and car loans and boosting spending on the military and border enforcement. It will add about $3.8tn to the federal government’s $36.2tn in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

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IRS reportedly planning to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status

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Probably illegal move against US’s richest university is latest in Trump’s attack on independence of higher education

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly planning to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status in what would be a probably illegal move amid Donald Trump’s concerted attack on the independence of US institutions of higher education.

Trump on Tuesday called for Harvard, the US’s oldest and wealthiest university and one of the most prestigious in the world, to lose its tax-exempt status, CNN first reported.

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‘Silicon Six’ accused of avoiding almost $278bn in US corporation taxes over 10 years

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Analysis finds Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft averaged 18.8%, compared with 29.7% US average

The big American tech firms known as the “Silicon Six” have been accused of paying almost $278bn (£211bn) less corporate income tax in the past decade compared with the statutory rate for US companies making the same profits.

Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft generated $11tn of revenue and $2.5tn of profits over the past 10 years.

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Inflation pain helped secure Trump win but his policies mean higher prices

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Markets expect his policy package to harm trade and growth but reduce business taxes

Higher share prices. A stronger dollar. A less rapid pace of interest rate cuts. The financial market reaction to Donald Trump’s return to the White House was swift and predictable.

The man who will become his country’s 47th president has made no secret of what he plans to do: cut taxes, impose heavy tariffs on imported goods, place curbs on migration, and slash red tape.

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Harris edges out Trump on key economic questions, new poll shows

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Poll shows more voters support US vice-president’s tax and housing policies compared with the Republican nominee

Donald Trump has lost his advantage over Kamala Harris on who is best qualified to manage the economy, new polls suggest.

With millions of voters already casting early ballots for the presidency ahead of election day on 5 November, a fresh Associated Press/NORC poll says Harris, the Democratic nominee, has taken a slight lead when it comes to some key economic questions that concern middle-class voters.

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US and Israel allowed tax-deductible donations to groups blocking Gaza aid

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Three groups that have prevented humanitarian supplies reaching the Palestinian territory have raised over $200,000

Under American pressure, Israel has pledged to deliver large quantities of humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. But at the same time, the US and Israel have allowed tax-deductible donations to far-right groups that have blocked that aid from being delivered.

Three groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza – including one accused of looting or destroying supplies – have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the US and Israel, the Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records.

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Biden unveils ‘blue-collar’ budget plan with tax hikes for America’s wealthiest

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Proposal will creating ‘a little bit more breathing room’ for American families, Biden says – but Republicans dismiss his plans

Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled his budget, a sprawling policy vision that the president says reflects his commitment to building a fairer economy while drawing a sharp contrast to Republicans who are demanding steep cuts to federal spending programs.

Biden formally introduced his spending plan, which he has described as a “blue-collar blueprint”, in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that helped lift him to the White House in 2020. It was an unusually high-profile rollout for a budget proposal that is often greeted with a resounding thud on Capitol Hill.

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Prosecutors likened Trump to mob boss and had to prove he wasn’t insane – book

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Mark Pomerantz, who was on New York team investigating tax affairs, reportedly compares ex-president to John Gotti

New York prosecutors building a case against Donald Trump for allegedly lying about his wealth for tax purposes had to show the former president was “not legally insane”, one of those prosecutors reportedly writes in an eagerly awaited new book.

The lawyer, Mark Pomerantz, also reportedly compares Trump, the only confirmed candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, to famous figures in the world of organised crime including John Gotti, the “Teflon Don” who died in prison in 2002.

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Trump tax returns: key takeaways from the records release

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The former president had a bank account in China, failed to donate in 2020 and claims Democrats ‘weaponized’ his taxes

In one of its last acts under Democratic control, the House of Representatives on Friday released six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns, dating to 2015, the year he announced his presidential bid.

The thousands of pages of returns were the subject of a prolonged legal battle after Trump broke precedent by not releasing his tax returns while running for, and then occupying, the White House.

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Trump says tax returns release will ‘lead to horrible things for so many people’ – as it happened

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More elections news from Arizona, a swing state where pro-Trump Republicans have of late caused a lot of trouble with claims of electoral fraud in races in which they were beaten.

On Thursday, in a recount triggered by the closeness of the first count, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, Kris Mayes, was declared the winner for a second time, beating the Republican candidate, Abe Hamadeh.

“Outside court, Mayes attorney Dan Barr said the results should give the public confidence in elections, despite the adjustments in vote totals as a result of the recount.

‘They didn’t just do a rubber stamp of what it was,’ Barr said. ‘They did a careful evaluation of the votes and they came up with a different result. And so I think people should have a lot of confidence in the process.’

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US senators to start debate on breakthrough bipartisan gun violence bill – live

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One of the star witnesses at yesterday’s hearing of the January 6 committee was Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of Arizona’s House of Representatives. He detailed how he was pressured by Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani to take part in a scheme to disrupt the certification of Arizona’s vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, or overturn it entirely.

He said he wanted nothing to do with their plans, which he described as unsupported by evidence and “against my oath,” adding, “I will not break my oath.”

Uncertainty has clouded Juul since it landed in the FDA’s sights four years ago, when its fruity flavors and hip marketing were blamed for fueling a surge of underage vaping. The company since then has been trying to regain the trust of regulators and the public. It limited its marketing and in 2019 stopped selling sweet and fruity flavors. Juul’s sales have tumbled in recent years.

The FDA has barred the sale of all sweet and fruity e-cigarette cartridges. The agency has cleared the way for Juul’s biggest rivals, Reynolds American Inc. and NJOY Holdings Inc., to keep tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes on the market. Industry observers had expected Juul to receive similar clearance.

The proposal comes as the Biden administration doubles down on fighting cancer-related deaths.

Earlier this year, the government announced plans to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years.

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Democratic senator Joe Manchin cuts ad for West Virginia Republican

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Manchin cites Biden Build Back Better spending plan he sank in ad for David McKinley, challenger to Trump-backed incumbent

Joe Manchin has recorded an ad for a Republican in a West Virginia US House election, in which the Democratic senator trumpets his opposition to Joe Biden’s Build Back Better domestic spending plan.

“David McKinley has always opposed reckless spending because it doesn’t make sense for West Virginia,” Manchin said.

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Judge denies Trump’s request to end contempt order and $10,000-a-day fine

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New York judge said there was no evidence Trump had conducted a thorough search for the records sought by attorney general

A New York judge on Friday denied a request from Donald Trump’s lawyer to end a contempt-of-court finding against the former US president and kept in place $10,000-a-day fine over his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the state attorney general investigating the business practices of Trump’s family company, the Trump Organization.

Justice Arthur Engoron in New York state court in Manhattan said he was not satisfied with an affidavit provided by Trump and said there was no evidence Trump had conducted a thorough search for the records sought by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.

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Kamala Harris again earns over twice as much as Joe Biden, tax returns show

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The vice-president and her husband reported a gross income of $1.7m while the Bidens made $611,000

Kamala Harris and her husband earned more than twice as much as Joe Biden and his wife did last year, according to copies of their income tax returns released on Friday.

Harris and the so-called second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, reported a federal adjusted gross income of about $1.7m in 2021, which was about the same they claimed to have earned the prior year.

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‘I’m not walking anything back’: Biden defends comment that Putin can’t stay in power – US politics as it happened

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The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack is expected to discuss Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, tonight, before it officially considers holding in criminal contempt of Congress two of Donald Trump’s most senior White House advisers, Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro.

The move to initiate contempt proceedings against the two Trump aides amounts to a biting rebuke of their refusal to cooperate with the inquiry, as the panel deploys its most punitive measures to reaffirm the consequences of noncompliance.

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