Tax News & Views Baseball Roundup

Tariffs

Trump Announces 25% Tariffs on Imported Cars and Car Parts - Ana Swanson, Jack Ewing, Tony Romm - New York Times:

Nearly half of all vehicles sold in the United States are imported, as well as nearly 60 percent of the parts in vehicles assembled in the United States. That means the tariffs could push up car prices significantly when inflation has already made cars and trucks more expensive for American consumers.

During remarks at the White House, Mr. Trump said the tariffs would encourage auto companies and their suppliers to set up shop in the United States.

Trump Tariffs: Tracking the Economic Impact of the Trump Trade War - Tax Foundation:

Secondary Tariffs: President Trump posted on March 24, 2025, that Venezuela and any countries that purchase oil and gas from Venezuela would face an additional 25 percent tariff effective April 2.

Tax Legislation

Clock ticks on Trump and GOP’s ‘big, beautiful’ bill on taxes - Jacob Bogage, Washington Post:

Republicans are using a process called “budget reconciliation” to bundle the policies together and route them around a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.

Johnson included a $4 trillion increase to the debt limit — the amount the federal government can borrow to pay its bills — as part of the House’s budget. But some in the Senate would rather pass a borrowing extension as a separate bill; lawmakers in the upper chamber have discussed pairing an increase with tens of billions of dollars in disaster assistance for California wildfire victims.

But that would be a tricky vote in the House: A number of Republicans in the lower chamber refuse to vote for debt limit legislation, and including it as part of a tax bill was Johnson’s play to keep GOP lawmakers on board with a broad package.

GOP leaders plan to punt on major fights in Trump agenda bill - Jordain Carney, Meredith Less Hill, Benjamin Guggenheim, Politico:

Republican leaders want to delay decisions on some of their biggest fights as they race to show progress toward enacting President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic agenda of tax cuts, border security and energy policies.

With GOP lawmakers desperate to finalize a budget framework for the planned megabill before an upcoming Easter recess, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are signaling that they will move forward on the fiscal blueprint without first resolving major disputes over the offsets — including potentially huge cuts to Medicaid.

The two dynamics that sped up reconciliation - Jake Sherman, Laura Weiss, Andrew Desiderio, and John Bresnahan, Punchbowl News:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told a private meeting of Senate Republicans Wednesday that the chamber may vote on a joint House-Senate budget resolution next week, as we scooped. Remember, the House and Senate need to pass an identical budget resolution to unlock reconciliation.

Thune’s projection that the chamber could vote next week represents an accelerated timeline. It’s a week earlier than Thune laid out to Republicans just a day earlier. And it comes after a particularly productive meeting between Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson, top tax writers and key Trump administration officials on Tuesday.

Senate GOP Taxwriters See $2T Budget Cut for Tax Bill - Doug Sword, Tax Notes ($):

The budget resolution the House adopted February 26 included a roadmap to cut spending by at least $1.5 trillion over 10 years, with an incentive to raise that to $2 trillion. Moderates in both chambers have expressed concerns that such steep cuts would affect social safety net programs.

House members have worried that the Senate would balk at such steep cuts, undermining the necessary support of budget hard-liners in the narrowly controlled chamber.

But in comments made to reporters March 26, Senate Finance Committee members Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., both said the Senate could go for at least $2 trillion in cuts in the new budget resolution being negotiated between the chambers and the White House.

More on Capitol Hill

U.S. Debt-Limit Deadline Likely This Summer—or Maybe Sooner - Richard Rubin and Lindsay Wise, Wall Street Journal:

The CBO projection puts lawmakers on the clock to figure out how and when to raise the debt limit, and the forecast for August or September gives them time to combine it with a major tax-and-spending bill that is still taking shape.

Raising the debt limit can be a painful vote for politicians who don’t like to be associated with higher government borrowing, but it is necessary to prevent the U.S. from missing scheduled payments and triggering unpredictable global financial consequences.

Senate Sends Repeal Of Crypto Broker Rule To Trump - Asha Glover, Law 360 Tax Authority ($):

The Senate passed legislation Wednesday that would repeal a final U.S. Treasury Department rule implementing additional reporting requirements for decentralized finance brokers such as cryptocurrency platforms, sending the resolution to President Donald Trump's desk to sign.

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Nearly one in four Americans own cryptocurrency, Smith told Law360 in a statement Wednesday.

Blogs and Bits

Tax Day Is Almost Here. Millions of Americans Haven’t Filed Yet. - Ashlea Ebeling, Wall Street Journal:

The April 15 tax-filing deadline is three weeks away, and tens of millions of taxpayers have yet to file their taxes. The Internal Revenue Service had received nearly 70.4 million returns as of March 14, down 1.7% from the same period last year. It had processed 69.6 million returns, meaning the computers are chugging along.

How to file when missing your earnings' statements - Kay Bell, Don't Mess With Taxes:

Let’s get real, again. With Tax Day fast approaching, filing your tax return using a substitute wage statement probably is your preferred option.

That's IRS Form 4852. This document is the official substitute for W-2 wage statements, as well as for Form 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc.

Tax Policy

In a Shift, More Republicans Want Government Investment in Children - Claire Cain Miller, New York Times:

In a variety of surveys in recent years, majorities of both Democrats and Republicans show support for family policies like paid leave, affordable child care and tax credits for parents.

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Even having a small majority of Republicans embrace government spending on children is a notable shift, analysts say. It’s a recognition that American families are struggling, especially those who are working class, a growing share of Republican voters.

Replay Review Requested

Tax Court Erred In Ex-Braves' Easement Feud, 11th Circ. Told - Kate Lucero, Law 360 Tax Authority (defendant names omitted):

Two former Atlanta Braves players reupped their arguments before the Eleventh Circuit that the U.S. Tax Court made grave errors in a case that slashed their conservation easement value, saying the federal government's failure to address those missteps shields the issues from legal scrutiny.

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At issue is the partnership's tax deduction claims for donating the conservation easement, encumbered to their land in central Georgia, to the Southeast Regional Land Conservancy. Defendant has been in a long-running controversy with the Internal Revenue Service, which determined that the easement had a much lower value than what the partnership initially came up with.

What day is it?

Speaking of baseball.. it's Major League Baseball Opening Day!

Tax News & Views Baseball Roundup

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