News Updates

State corporate income tax systems are complicated to administer, difficult to enforce, and yield modest revenue, but the recent rush to cut or eliminate business taxes raises larger questions for some about collecting revenue fairly and financing state services. According to Adam Thimmesch, a professor of tax law at the University of Nebraska College of Law, the states have more to lose than gain if they choose to shave or eliminate corporate income taxes. Thimmesch advised that states should streamline and modernize their corporate tax systems, not do away with them.

The IRS has provided a comprehensive, updated list of changes in tax accounting methods to which the automatic change procedures in Rev. Proc. 2015-13 apply. The list includes 29 changes that the Service describes as significant.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is warning users of payment apps such as Venmo, PayPal, and CashApp not to store their money in those apps for long periods of time because it could be at risk in a crisis. The CFPB notes that these apps may lack deposit insurance protection, with certain exceptions.

State senators ended a tumultuous 2023 session Thursday, giving a final OK to bills concerning voter identification, tax breaks for economic development and criminal justice reform. The 90-day session ended two days early and will be remembered for historic tax cuts, hard feelings aired during floor debate, and an almost session-long string of filibusters mounted in protest of a bill that banned gender-affirming procedures for minors. State Sen. Tom Briese of Albion, a key player in the legislation that delivered income tax cuts and property tax relief,summed it up best: It was a "momentous session" for what got done and for how hard it was to get those things done.

Nebraska and Iowa enacted Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) legislation during the 2023 legislative sessions, joining 33 other states that allow PTET.

State lawmakers largely stuck with Gov. Jim Pillen on Wednesday, approving only one override of his budget vetoes — an additional $1.2 million for the State Auditor's Office. State Auditor Mike Foley had asked for additional funding, arguing that he was losing auditors to other state agencies because they could offer $20,000 to $30,000 more a year in pay due to 22% pay raises for state employees effective July 1 — raises not granted to auditor personnel.

Accounting Today's experiment with ChatGPT revealed some best practices to get good results from the AI chatbot.

The institute is asking for more guidance on how to help taxpayers compute their losses on digital assets such as cryptocurrency.

The recent rise in the use of artificial intelligence suggests it is only a matter of time before the powerful tools are used to find tax loopholes. A Johns Hopkins University-based project aims to create an AI program that "can find loopholes better than a legion of blue-chip tax accountants" before major corporations develop their own. The purpose is to build software called Shelter Check that Congress, the IRS and the court system could use to identify potential loopholes in legislation or rulings. The IRS already uses AI to track down alleged tax cheats, but Shelter Check would help the feds flag sophisticated tax shelters before they can even be used. University of Maryland law professor Andrew Blair-Stanek, a former tax attorney who is part of the Shelter Check team, says the program is aimed at corporate tax dodgers with complex returns and emphasized "this is not something the average taxpayer has anything to worry about." Separately, Muse Tax, an early-stage startup based in New York, is working on a system that is also capable of navigating complex and quickly-changing tax codes, but with the aim of finding ways in which users can keep their bills to a minimum. The Muse Tax system employs OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-3.5, and the company plans to soon move to the latest version, GPT-4, according to co-founder Colin Horsford. Muse Tax’s publicly announced partners include Bilt Rewards, a rewards program that allows people to earn points when paying rent, and Nestment, which facilitates pooling of capital among home buyers, primarily younger ones.

Using "tax day" as a backdrop, Gov. Jim Pillen joined some key state senators and two tax groups Tuesday in touting legislative proposals that aim to reduce Nebraska's top income tax rate to 3.99% by 2027. Tuesday was the deadline to file state and federal income tax returns, and the governor and others maintained that the state needs to be more competitive when it comes to taxes. "It's really important that we have a tax policy that gets us in the game," Pillen said.

Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” It’s surely messy and sometimes maddening. But democracy is self-correcting, so more of it truly is the solution. - George Ayoub

The program, offered by a financial wellness coaching service, joins a burgeoning patchwork of wealth management support systems for student-athletes.

Adding someone to your bank account can be a convenient financial planning tool, but it can also lead to unintended consequences, such as disrupting the terms of a will or triggering federal gift tax issues in certain cases. Here are some alternatives that can avoid these issues.

The emergence of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT will wind up affecting as many as 300 million full-time jobs around the globe and could lead to some job losses as well as enhanced productivity, according to Goldman Sachs. It also noted that "most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are thus more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by AI."

The artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT has become so popular that its free service is sometimes at capacity. Here is a closer look at ChatGPT and a list of alternative AI chatbots, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a law requiring employers to offer paid time off for any reason, making it the third state after Maine and Nevada to have such a mandate. Under the law, employees will gain one hour of paid leave per 40 hours worked, although certain kinds of workers will be exempt.

While many voters might not care about how much tax corporations are asked to pay, they do care about the opportunities these employers provide in their communities, so a state’s tax policies have to be aligned with the goal of landing corporate relocations and expansions. Nebraska currently has the 18th highest corporate income tax among all states. It used to be even higher.

"Should any state or jurisdiction lower the licensure requirement to 120 hours, their CPAs would no longer be automatically substantially equivalent and would no longer enjoy the mobility and reciprocal practice privileges they currently are afforded," NASBA President and CEO Ken Bishop said in a recent interview.

Women and racial and ethnic minorities continue their rise to executive roles, although the percentages remain low. The percentage of CFOs who are women hit an all-time high last year, and the number of female CFOs has almost doubled over the past 10 years, according to the Crist Kolder Volatility Report.

Dan Geltrude is unequivocal about what’s in store for accounting firms. “It’s absolutely a gamechanger for the entire profession,” the CPA told NJBIZ. The gamechanger is a new pilot program, being tested in New Jersey, to create an alternative path to the 150 credits needed to be eligible for a CPA license.