Tax Short - What do Taxes Have to Do with Christmas?

Jeff and Scott chat with Clyde Ray, a political scientist and author of the book John Marshall's Constitutionalism, about the Supreme Court case McCulloch v Maryland, which hinged on whether a state could tax a federal bank. 

In this case, John Marshall teaches us that "the power to tax involves the power to destroy."

Jeff and Scott chat with  Alexander Arnon. Alex serves as the Director of Business Tax and Economic Analysis at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, and he explains  the Wyden-Smith tax deal, including the extension of the business tax components of the TCJA, the expansion of the child tax credit, and the Employee Retention Credit. Alex talks about the background on the deal, as well as how Penn Wharton provided their revenue estimate.

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Jeff and Scott chat with Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the President of the American Action Forum, former director of the CBO,  and former chief economic policy adviser to Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Doug has also testified before Congress more than anyone else that did not do so as a requirement of their job. Jeff and Scott discuss the purpose of Congressional testimony, who is asked to do it, and some of Doug's experiences testifying.

Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to download the free app. Go to the Tax Chats channel, register for the course, take a short quiz, and earn your CPE certificate.

Jeff and Scott chat with Wojciech Kopczuk, professor of Economics at Columbia University, an editor at the Journal of Public Economics, and IgNobel Prize Winner, about the trends in income inequality. The long-standing received wisdom is that income inequality is high, and growing higher. A recent paper published in the Journal of Political Economy by Gerry Auten and David Splinter call into question that finding. Jeff, Scott and Wojciech talk about the difficulties in measuring income inequality, its consequences, etc.

Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to download the free app. Go to the Tax Chats channel, register for the course, take a short quiz, and earn your CPE certificate.

Jeff and Scott chat with Laura Snyder, an advocate for an improved tax system for Americans living abroad.  Laura is currently the  President of Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation, (SEAT) and is also an American living abroad. They talk about the different types of Americans living abroad, and how their lives are complicated by the American tax system.

Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to download the free app. Go to the Tax Chats channel, register for the course, take a short quiz, and earn your CPE certificate.

This episode originally aired on January 15, 2022.

Martin Luther King Jr. is the only person to have ever been tried for perjury with regards to state income taxes in Alabama. Jeff and Scott interview Edgar Dyer about the tax perjury trial of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1960. Eddie wrote an article entitled "A Triumph of Justice in Alabama: The 1960 Perjury Trial of Martin Luther King, Jr."

Fred Grey, Martin Luther King's attorney, said of the trial, "No one would have predicted that an all-white jury in Montgomery, Alabama, the Cradle of the Confederacy, in May 1960, in the middle of all the sit-ins and all of the racial tension that was going on, would exonerate Martin Luther King, Jr. But it really happened." Coretta Scott King said of the trial, "A southern jury of twelve white men had acquitted Martin. It was a triumph of justice, a miracle that restored your faith in human good."  Dr. King said it was a "turning point" in his life. Tune in to hear about this triumphal tax trial, which was a turning point for Martin Luther King.

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For the second time, Jeff and Scott chat with Benjamin Alarie, a law professor at the University of Toronto, and, the founder and CEO of BlueJ.  They talk about one of BlueJ's products which predicts tax court case outcomes, and also discuss the future of AI and taxes generally.

Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to download the free app. Go to the Tax Chats channel, register for the course, take a short quiz, and earn your CPE certificate.

A Way to Pay Taxes (to the tune of Away in the Manger)
Re-release (originally released Christmas, 2021)

Lyrics by Jeff Hoopes, Sung by Stacey Hoopes

Oh Joseph and Mary
They were there for a task
They came to the city
To pay their tax
But as they remitted 
The tax on their worth
Oh Mary, a virgin
She had to give birth

 They went to the city
By Caesa­r’s decree
As taxes touched Joseph
They affect you and me
When we give birth
and when we die
How much we work
And what car we buy 

 For every decision
We weigh how we act
By counting the cost
And we do it post-tax 
The pros and the cons
In dollars and cents
We consider the taxes
Before we commence

Jeff and Scott talk about two taxes levied at the Hoopes household, the "floor tax", and the "toilet tax."  These two taxes demonstrate how the tax system can be used as either a carrot or a stick, and the benefit of each approach, and the importance of administrative costs (which made the toilet tax impractical). We also discus how, and whether, taxes can be used to solve social problems.  Scott vows to do better in taxing the subjects of his kingdom. 

Jeff and  Scott talk with UNC Marketing professor Kristopher Keller about his work on the effect of marketing on soda taxes (joint work with  Jonne Guyt and Rajdeep Grewal). After passing a soda tax, a tax on sugared beverages meant to discourage their consumption, stores can change their marketing of soda. Kristopher, with coauthors, show that stores actually decrease the amount of marketing they do, which contributes to some of the  decline in soda consumption which has been documented to accompany soda taxes. In sum, Kristopher shows that  marketing can affect the measured elasticity of soda consumption with respect to the soda tax rate.

Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to download the free app. Go to the Tax Chats channel, register for the course, take a short quiz, and earn your CPE certificate.