Lately, I’ve been thinking about the meaning of “home.” For nearly five years, I’ve called northern Virginia home. I love living there—so much so that I became a homeowner at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
But in many ways, I feel like I return “home” when I visit my closest friends in New York City, where I lived for 11 years. I don’t feel the same way about Connecticut, despite having lived in the state for seven years. And while there’s a comfortable familiarity with western Pennsylvania, where I grew up, I can’t say I feel the pull of home when I visit my parents—even though I love them dearly and cherish the time I spend with them.
So what, then, is the definition of home? It’s more than time spent or memories attached to a place. I’m thinking it’s possibly the feeling of connection and belonging that a place provides. Or maybe it’s more esoteric. Maybe it’s a place that speaks to you in a deep sense, a place where you can be your true self—a community.
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—Rebecca Baker
A “For Sale” sign is seen near an apartment block in Arlington, Va.
Photographer: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Quick Trivia
How many times does the average person in the US relocate in their lifetime?
Answer at the bottom.
State Insights
Christopher A. Jones of Ballard Spahr LLP summarizes recent tax developments in Pennsylvania, including a court ruling on sales and use tax and inheritance tax issues, new guidance about realty transfer tax refunds, and more.
Federal Insights
Several tax breaks for individuals expired at the end of 2021. Tax pros should schedule time in the coming weeks to advise clients on how these changes may impact their tax picture, says EY’s Tony Nitti.
Colin Brien of Comply Exchange takes a look at the new platform for Form 1099 reporting, the Information Returns Intake System, which allows filers to produce paper forms for its recipients and e-file directly to the IRS.
Corporate taxpayers may have assumed that changes to research and development rules in Section 174(a) only affected life science companies—those with lab coats and test tubes. But after reviewing the new definition of R&D that went into effect a year ago, the changes will be affecting all industries, say EisnerAmper’s Stephen Boncimino and Alexandra Colman.
While changes to Form 1099-K won’t affect the 2022 tax season, accountants should start preparing clients now for compliance with the new thresholds for third-party payment transactions, say Avalara’s Pamela Knudsen and Butler-Davis Tax & Accounting’s Nicole Davis.
Global Insights
The European Commission has taken a landmark step in climate policy that will enter into force in October. Richard J. Albert and Alwyn Hopkins of EY outline the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism measures and the key areas of potential impact for businesses importing into the EU or engaging in international trade with EU businesses.
James Buckley of Sovos describes the continuing process of indirect tax digitization in Europe, and the challenges for business as tax authorities gather increasing amounts of information. He explains that businesses’ tax tech requirements are becoming a lot broader and more focused on the need to match the tax man’s digital data insights.
As a US territory, Puerto Rico has a unique tax climate. NERA Economic Consulting’s Vladimir Starkov offers tips on how businesses that rely on provisions of Puerto Rico Act 60 can prepare documents of related-party transactions to avoid IRS penalties for misstatement of income from export services.
Meyyappan Nagappan and Shweta Mallya of Trilegal consider the impact of the recent Indian budget for online gaming and gambling, one of India’s fastest growing industries.
Commentary
Environmental, social, and governance is a top agenda item for tax and accounting professionals. As organizations face a critical decision point on ESG, now isn’t the time to hit the brakes, says Rob Fisher of KPMG.
A skyward view is shown of an apartment building in the Bronx.
Photographer: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
A Closer Look
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 nor how it operates, says Aleksandra Bal of Stripe in the latest edition of “A Closer Look.”
Columnists
Taxing electric vehicles by battery weight would help fund critical charging infrastructure and block grants for advancing battery technology. The EV market is gaining traction, but it’s still malleable, so by enacting sound policy now, we can direct innovation toward efficiency and safety, Andrew Leahey writes.
Save the Date
Telling someone an uncomfortable truth can be difficult—especially in a professional setting. To avoid an argument or to spare someone’s feelings, sometimes it’s easier to just let things go. But it also can lead to greater problems down the road.
There are ways to communicate your message without triggering a “fight or flight” response in the other person—or in yourself. Hear more about some of those strategies by joining Bloomberg Tax and Bloomberg Law Insights and Commentary teams on Feb. 23 at noon ET. We’ve recruited an expert who specializes in helping organizations respond successfully to the challenges of continuous change.
Reader Responses
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.
Wish List
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 foreign countries around the world, we want to know what changes in tax policy they are proposing and how those changes would affect your practice and those of your clients.
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.
Career Moves
Aurélie Clementz has joined the Ogier partnership to lead its tax offering in Luxembourg.
Colin Little and Vanja Podinic will join Ashurst LLP from Deloitte as partners in the tax practice in Sydney.
Jessica Kemp has joined White & Case as a partner in the tax practice in London.
Tim Glasgow has joined Sherman & Howard in the tax and probate group.
Kevin Devenney has been named a tax partner at Grant Thornton in Ireland.
Tara Potts has joined Jackson Walker as a partner in the trusts and estates practice,
Jonathan Blum has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in the nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations team in Dallas.
David Pope has joined DLA Piper as a partner in the tax group in New York.
Spotlight
Our Spotlight series highlights the careers and lives of tax professionals across the globe. This week’s Spotlight is on Angela J. Henry, a certified public and global management accountant who is president and principal of Alegna Financial Management Inc. in Atlanta.
News
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.
- A clash pitting the lack of US-sourced building materials against a made-in-America provision required for adding an extra boost to lucrative new tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act has the solar industry wondering what the impact will be for potentially billions of dollars in new clean-energy projects.
- Prospects for a broad tax increase on wealthy Californians may be dim, but Gov. Gavin Newsom is targeting a narrow slice of them for higher tax bills if they have trusts set up out of state.
- Binance, the world’s largest digital-asset exchange, indicated a full audit of its assets and liabilities is some way off amid calls for more transparency following the collapse of rival FTX.
- EY plans to hire thousands fewer people this year than it initially planned after churn among its employees fell, the latest sign of a cooling job market for finance workers.
- The IRS was permitted to reallocate income from 3M’s Brazilian subsidiary to the US parent company for tax purposes to reflect what would have happened if the two companies weren’t connected to each other, the US Tax Court ruled.
A house is shown in Stonington, Conn.
Our Team
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): The original “Night Court,” now streaming on Amazon Prime. I watched it as a kid and wanted to revisit it now that the reboot is on the air. Some scenes could never be shown today, but the show has a lot of heart, and there’s at least one laugh-out-loud moment in each episode.
- Maria Menezes (Practice Lead, Bloomberg Tax:) “Death in Paradise” on BBC One, a cozy crime drama based on a fictional island in the Caribbean. It’s very welcome to be transported to sun, sea, and warmth while one sits in midwinter UK.
Listening:
- Melanie Cohen (Editor, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): One of my Spotify playlists featuring some favorite artists: Charley Crockett, Yola, Ondara, Black Pumas, and Lady Wray.
- Katharine Butler (Acquisitions Manager, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): I just went to a lunchtime music recital featuring German songs by Strauss by a singer who’s appearing at Covent Garden soon—that was pretty good.
Reading:
- Andrew Leahey (Columnist, Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Tax): This is a bit of a stretch of the definition of “reading,” but I’ve been glued to my Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America. Our cabin is in the Poconos, and it has been a mild winter, so a few feathered friends have hung with us.
Quick Trivia Answer
It’s estimated that a person in the US can expect to move 11.7 times in their lifetime.
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