Tax Chats
Dyreng and Hoopes
Taxes touch every aspect of society, including who rules, where factories are built, what people drink, what car they buy, when they have children, and when they die. Scott Dyreng (Duke) and Jeff Hoopes (UNC), two accounting professors, chat about taxes, including current events, with the energy of an over-caffeinated chihuahua. Listening is guaranteed to be far more entertaining than actually paying your taxes.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 6, 2021 • 4min
Tax Short - Do Domestic Companies Pay More Tax than Multinational Companies
Send a textScott discusses whether domestic companies pay more tax than multinational companies. The episode addresses a commonly held belief that domestic firms are at a tax-based cost disadvantage. An example would be this Op-Ed, published by Bloomberg.
Dec 1, 2021 • 36min
Ignoring Scoring is Deploring
Send a textWe discuss "scoring" with Brigham Young University Professor John Barrick. Scoring is the process used to determine how much revenue a tax bill will generate, or how much revenue a spending bill will consume. Scoring is a major part of every tax bill, including the Biden's Build Back Better plan. For example, the most current scoring of the BBB can be found here. More information can be found here:jct.govhttps://www.jct.gov/operations/frequently-asked-questions/https://www.cbo.gov/about/products/ce-faqClarification: One listener emailed and let us know that in the episode, there is a reference that some may interpret as scoring including behavioral effects only since 2003. To be clear, behavioral effects have always been taken into account in JCT scores.
Nov 29, 2021 • 4min
Tax Short - Do Most Public Companies Pay Low or No Tax?
Send a textScott discusses the common narrative that most large publicly traded companies pay very low or no income tax.
Nov 29, 2021 • 3min
Tax Short - What is a fair tax?
Send a textJeff talks about fair taxes. People always say they want a fair tax system, or that they want people to pay their fair share. What would a fair tax system look like?
Nov 23, 2021 • 34min
Insights or Incites? Elizabeth Warren's Report on "Tax Dodgers"
Send a textJeff and Scott discuss a recent report released by Senator Elizabeth Warren's office entitled "Tax Dodgers: How Billionaire Corporations Avoid Paying Taxes and How to Fix It" available here. We discuss the weaknesses in the report, including the language to describe tax avoidance, and the facts underlying the data in the report. We describe how the report does not appear to provide many insights, but instead appears designed to incite anger against large profitable corporations.
Nov 23, 2021 • 4min
Tax Short - How Much do Millionaires Pay in Tax?
Send a textScott discusses how much tax millionaires pay. Millionaires and Billionaires are often used in the same way to describe someone who is rich. But the taxes levied on the typical millionaire are vastly different than the taxes levied on many Billionaires.
Nov 23, 2021 • 4min
Tax Short - Is a 4% Wealth Tax the Same as a 120% Income Tax?
Send a textJeff discusses wealth and income tax rates. We are used to thinking of tax rates on income. How do we think about tax rates on wealth? Luckily, there is an easy way to convert a wealth tax rate into an income tax rate, and, the result may surprise you.
Nov 17, 2021 • 31min
Ask the Option Tax-Ologist
Send a textWe discuss tax issues related to stock options. The discussion is related to Elon Musk's recent infamous twitter poll, in which he asked his followers if he should sell some of his shares in Tesla. Scott buys an option in real time. Related articles are found here: 1. CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/07/elon-musk-faces-a-15-billion-tax-bill-which-is-likely-the-real-reason-hes-selling-stock.html2. Fortune: https://fortune.com/2021/11/10/tesla-elon-musk-stock-options-tax-mistake/ 3. Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-musk-says-stock-sale-impact-closer-tax-maximization-2021-11-14/
Nov 15, 2021 • 7min
Tax Short - The Pros and Cons of Taxing GAAP (the Amazon Tax)
Send a textScott explains why companies have two separate accounting systems, one for reporting income to shareholders (GAAP), and one for reporting income to the IRS. He describes some pros and cons to taxing GAAP, as has been proposed by Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and others.
Nov 15, 2021 • 3min
Tax Short - Why Don't Billionaires Pay Tax?
Send a textJeff describes why many billionaires don't pay any tax (or at least pay rates of tax that are far lower than millionaires). He discusses the idea of unrealized gains.
