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IRS Delays Gig-Tax Filing Rule for Side Hustles of More Than $600
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Tag: Executive Branch (Discontinued from 10th January 2023)
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House panel will make Trump’s long-sought tax returns public
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WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines on Tuesday to make parts of Donald Trump’s tax returns public, a move that could provide new insight into the finances of a former president who broke political norms by refusing to release the information on his own.
The level of detail that will be revealed is uncertain, but lawmakers said they expect it to include six years of Trump’s tax returns and eight affiliated companies. Some sensitive personal information would be redacted. While an initial report on the committee’s work was issued later Tuesday night, the tax returns themselves may not be released for several more days.
The release is the culmination of a yearslong fight between Trump and Democrats that has played out everywhere from the campaign trail to the halls of Congress and the Supreme Court. Democrats on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee argued that transparency and the rule of law were at stake by voting to issue a report that legally rests on questions about how the IRS audits the wealthy. Republicans countered that the release would set a dangerous precedent with regard to the loss of privacy protections.
“This is about the presidency, not the president,” committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., told reporters.
Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the panel’s top GOP member, said, “Regrettably, the deed is done.”
“Over our objections in opposition, Democrats in the Ways and Means Committee have unleashed a dangerous new political weapon that overturns decades of privacy protections,” he told reporters.
Trump has long had a complicated relationship with his personal income taxes.
As a presidential candidate in 2016, he broke decades of precedent by refusing to release his tax forms to the public. He bragged during a presidential debate that year that he was “smart” because he paid no federal taxes and later claimed he wouldn’t personally benefit from the 2017 tax cuts he signed into law that favored people with extreme wealth, asking Americans to simply take him at his word.
Tax records would have been a useful metric for judging his success in business. The image of a savvy businessman was key to a political brand honed during his years as a tabloid magnet and star of “The Apprentice” television show. They also could reveal any financial obligations — including foreign debts — that could influence how he governed.
But Americans were largely in the dark about Trump’s relationship with the IRS until October 2018 and September 2020, when The New York Times published two separate series based on leaked tax records.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 articles showed how Trump received a modern equivalent of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate holdings, with much of that money coming from what the Times called “tax dodges” in the 1990s. Trump sued the Times and his niece, Mary Trump, in 2021 for providing the records to the newspaper. In November, Mary Trump asked an appeals court to overturn a judge’s decision to reject her claims that her uncle and two of his siblings defrauded her of millions of dollars in a 2001 family settlement.
The 2020 articles showed that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018. Trump paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the past 15 years because he generally lost more money than he made.
The articles exposed deep inequities in the U.S. tax code as Trump, a reputed multi-billionaire, paid little in federal income taxes. IRS figures indicate that the average tax filer paid roughly $12,200 in 2017, about 16 times more than the former president paid.
Details about Trump’s income from foreign operations and debt levels were also contained in the tax filings, which the former president derided as “fake news.”
At the time of the 2020 articles, Neal said he saw an ethical problem in Trump overseeing a federal agency that he has also battled with legal filings.
“Now, Donald Trump is the boss of the agency he considers an adversary,” Neal said in 2020. “It is essential that the IRS’s presidential audit program remain free of interference.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office also obtained copies of Trump’s tax records in February 2021 after a protracted legal fight that included two trips to the Supreme Court.
The office, then led by District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., had subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm in 2019, seeking access to eight years of Trump’s tax returns and related documents.
The DA’s office issued the subpoena after Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that Trump had misled tax officials, insurers and business associates about the value of his assets. Those allegations are the subject of a fraud lawsuit that New York Attorney General Letitia James filed against Trump and his company in September.
Trump’s longtime accountant, Donald Bender, testified at the Trump Organization’s recent criminal trial that Trump reported losses on his tax returns every year for a decade, including nearly $700 million in 2009 and $200 million in 2010.
Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years preparing Trump’s personal tax returns, said Trump’s reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from some of the many businesses he owns through his Trump Organization.
The Trump Organization was convicted earlier this month on tax fraud charges for helping some executives dodge taxes on company-paid perks such as apartments and luxury cars.
The current Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, told The Associated Press in an interview last week that his office’s investigation into Trump and his businesses continues.
“We’re going to follow the facts and continue to do our job,” Bragg said.
Trump, who refused to release his returns during his 2016 presidential campaign and his four years in the White House while claiming that he was under IRS audit, has argued there is little to be gleaned from the tax returns even as he has fought to keep them private.
“You can’t learn much from tax returns, but it is illegal to release them if they are not yours!” he complained on his social media network last weekend.
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Ukraine’s Zelensky set to visit Washington on Wednesday, meet with Biden
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WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is preparing to visit Washington on Wednesday, according to three AP sources, in his first known trip outside the country since Russia’s invasion began in February.
Two congressional sources and one person familiar with the matter confirmed plans for the visit. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the highly sensitive nature of the trip. They said Zelensky’s visit, while expected, could still be called off at the last minute due to security concerns.
The visit to Washington is set to include an address to Congress on Capitol Hill and a meeting with President Joe Biden. It comes as lawmakers are set to vote on a year-end spending package that includes about $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and as the U.S. prepares to send Patriot surface-to-air missiles to the country to help stave off Russia’s invasion.
The latest tranche of U.S. funding would be the biggest American infusion of assistance yet to Ukraine, above even President Joe Biden’s $37 billion emergency request, and ensure that funding flows to the war effort for months to come.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraged lawmakers to be on hand for Wednesday evening’s session.
“We are ending a very special session of the 117th Congress with legislation that makes progress for the American people as well as support for our Democracy,” Pelosi wrote Tuesday in a letter to colleagues. “Please be present for a very special focus on Democracy Wednesday night.”
Zelensky has — almost daily — addressed various parliaments and international organizations by video and he has sent his wife to foreign capitals to drum up assitance against the Russian invasion. The visit comes a day after he made a daring and dangerous trip to what he called the hottest spot on the 1300-km (808-mile) front line, the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s contested Donetsk province.
In a video released by his office from the Bakhmut visit, Zelensky was handed a Ukrainian flag and alluded to delivering it to U.S. leaders.
“The guys handed over our beautiful Ukrainian flag with their signatures for us to pass on,” Zelensky said in the video. “We are not in an easy situation. The enemy is increasing its army, and our people are braver and need more powerful weapons. We will pass it on from the boys to the Congress, to the President of the United States. We are grateful for their support, but it is not enough. It is a hint — it is not enough.”
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House Jan. 6 select committee expected to advise Justice Department to hit Trump with criminal charges
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, with lawmakers expected to cap one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory with an extraordinary recommendation: The Justice Department should consider criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.
At a final meeting on Monday, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are poised to recommend criminal charges against Trump and potentially against associates and staff who helped him launch a multifaceted pressure campaign to try to overturn the 2020 election.
Context: What to expect as House Jan. 6 panel readies final report on Trump’s ‘attempted coup’
While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute Trump or others, it is a decisive end to a probe that had an almost singular focus from the start.
“I think the president has violated multiple criminal laws and I think you have to be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is you have to be prosecuted,” Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from Southern California and a member of the panel, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The panel, set to dissolve on Jan. 3 with the advent of a Republican-led House, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, held 10 well-watched public hearings and collected more than a million documents since it launched in July 2021. As it has gathered the massive trove of evidence, the members have become emboldened in declaring that Trump is to blame for the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters almost two years ago.
From the archives (June 2022): Fox News is notable exception as prime-time Jan. 6 committee hearing blankets TV airwaves
Also (July 2022): Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s live testimony before Jan. 6 select committee was a TV ratings hit: Nielsen data
After beating their way past police, injuring many of them, the Jan. 6 rioters stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s win, echoing Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud and sending lawmakers and others running for their lives.
The attack came after weeks of Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat — a campaign that was extensively detailed by the committee in its multiple public hearings. Many of Trump’s former aides testified about his unprecedented pressure on states, federal officials and on Vice President Mike Pence to find a way to thwart the popular will.
“This is someone who in multiple ways tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn’t exist, this is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol,” Schiff said. “If that’s not criminal, then I don’t know what it is.”
See: Justice Department urges judge to hold Trump’s legal team in contempt over Mar-a-Lago case
Members of the committee have said that the referrals for other individuals may also include ethics violations, legal misconduct and campaign finance violations. Lawmakers have suggested in particular that their recommended charges against Trump could include conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and insurrection.
On insurrection, Schiff said Sunday that “if you look at Donald Trump’s acts and you match them up against the statute, it’s a pretty good match.” He said that the committee will focus on those individuals — presumably Trump — for whom they believe there is the strongest evidence.
Also: Nevada elections department subpoenaed in Trump 2020 election investigation
And: Trump ally Kari Lake pursues formal challenge to loss in race for governor of Arizona
While a so-called criminal referral has no real legal standing, it is a forceful statement by the committee and adds to political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith, who is conducting an investigation into Jan. 6 and Trump’s actions.
The committee is also expected at the hearing to preview its massive final report, which will include findings, interview transcripts and legislative recommendations. Lawmaker have said a portion of that report will be released Monday.
“We obviously want to complete the story for the American people,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and constitutional scholar who serves on the select committee. “Everybody has come on a journey with us and we want a satisfactory conclusion, such that people feel that Congress has done its job.”
The panel was formed in the summer of 2021 after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of what would have been a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection. That opposition spurred the Democratic-controlled House to form a committee of its own. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a Trump ally, decided not to participate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of his appointments. That left an opening for two anti-Trump Republicans in the House — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to join the seven Democrats serving on the committee.
From the archives (January 2021): Kevin McCarthy becomes poster boy for Republicans walking back their recent Trump criticism
While the committee’s mission was to take a comprehensive accounting of the insurrection and educate the public about what happened, they’ve also aimed their work at an audience of one: the attorney general. Lawmakers on the panel have openly pressured Garland to investigate Trump’s actions, and last month he appointed a special counsel, Smith, to oversee several probes related to Trump, including those related to the insurrection.
In court documents earlier this year, the committee suggested criminal charges against Trump could include conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress.
Wall Street Journal: Trump tax returns may be released after House panel meets Tuesday
In a “conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the committee argues that evidence supports an inference that Trump and his allies “entered into an agreement to defraud the United States” when they disseminated misinformation about election fraud and pressured state and federal officials to assist in that effort. Trump still says he won the election to this day.
The panel also asserts that Trump obstructed an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress in which the Electoral College votes are certified. The committee said Trump either attempted or succeeded at obstructing, influencing or impeding the ceremonial process on Jan. 6 and “did so corruptly” by pressuring Pence to try to overturn the results as he presided over the session. Pence declined to do so.
The committee may make ethics referrals for five House Republicans — including McCarthy — who ignored congressional subpoenas from the panel. Those referrals are unlikely to result in punishment since Republicans are set to take over the House majority in January.
Read on: McCarthy’s long-held speaker ambition set to come to a head when new Congress convenes in January
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FIFA rebuffed Zelensky’s offer to share message of peace at World Cup final, report says
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World soccer’s governing body FIFA rebuffed an offer from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to share a message of world peace at the World Cup final, according to a CNN report.
Citing an unnamed source, CNN reported that Zelensky’s office offered an appearance via video link prior to kickoff at Sunday’s final. Defending World Cup champion France takes on Argentina in the match at Lusail Stadium, several miles north of the Qatari capital Doha.
The source told CNN that Zelensky’s office was surprised by the negative response. It’s unclear if the message was to be delivered live, or taped, the report said. “We thought FIFA wanted to use its platform for the greater good,” the source was quoted as having told CNN, reportedly adding that talks between Ukraine and FIFA are ongoing.
See: Qatar World Cup controversy means sponsors are walking a tightrope
MarketWatch has reached out to FIFA and Zelensky’s office with requests for comment.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Zelensky has used high-profile video addresses to rally international support for his embattled nation. These have included addresses to the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, Britain’s House of Commons, the German Bundestag, the European Parliament and a G-20 summit, as well as video-link appearances at the Grammys and the Cannes Film Festival.
The last World Cup was held in Russia, with Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance as France defeated Croatia 4-2 in the final. (FIFA, controversially, announced its host-country selections for 2018 and 2022 — Russia and Qatar — on the same December day in 2010.)
The 2022 tournament is perhaps the most controversial in World Cup history, with Qatar facing a barrage of criticism over its treatment of migrant workers and its approach to LGBTQ+ rights in the country.
Now read: British band the Farm blocks McDonald’s from using hit song in Qatar World Cup ad
The criticism of Qatar, the first Arab nation to host a World Cup, reached a crescendo before the tournament kicked off last month. During a press conference on the eve of the opening game, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, launched into a lengthy defense of the decision to hold the tournamentin Qatar and accused the West of “hypocrisy.”
This World Cup is also the first to take place during the northern hemisphere’s winter. Traditionally, the tournament takes place in June and July, but this year’s tournament was moved to minimize the impact of Qatar’s searing heat.
See: For Budweiser, Qatar World Cup has been a tale of tough logistics and quick thinking
Branding experts have observed that this controversial World Cup poses challenges for the big-name corporations involved in the event. FIFA’s list of partners includes U.S. corporate titans Coca-Cola Co.
KO,
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and Visa Inc.
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who are both involved in the Qatar event. McDonald’s Corp.
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and Crypto.com are also World Cup sponsors.The tournament’s beer sponsor, Budweiser, an Anheuser-Busch InBev
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brand, has had a particularly eventful several weeks in Qatar. In an abrupt reversal just two days before the soccer showpiece kicked, Qatar organizers banned beer sales in the tournament’s eight stadiums.The reversal of that decision appeared to take Budweiser by surprise, with the company tweeting “Well, this is awkward …” before deleting the post. Budweiser quickly shrugged off the beer ban and promised a huge victory party for the country that wins the soccer showpiece.
Fox Sports, which is owned by Fox Corp.
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a sister company of MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones’s parent company, News Corp
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World awaits U.S. nuclear fusion breakthrough — but experts warn commercial viability is a decade away
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The U.S. Department of Energy is expected on Tuesday morning to announce a breakthrough in ongoing research for nuclear fusion, long heralded for its potential as a source of zero-emissions and essentially, limitless, energy.
The announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m. Eastern time.
Nuclear fusion, if it can be produced at scale, has long been considered the Holy Grail in the push for clean energy and slowing the global warming that is intensifying natural disasters, acidifying oceans and bringing extreme heat and drought. The U.S. and much of the rest of the developed world have been promoting a combination of solar, wind
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hydrogren and nuclear energy to replace the coal, oil
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and natural gas
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that send atmosphere-warming emissions into the air.Many nations, including the U.S., have said their economies must cut emissions by half as soon as 2030 and hit net-zero emissions by 2050.
On Sunday, the Financial Times reported that federally-funded scientists with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced more energy than was consumed in a fusion reaction for the first time. Other major news outlets confirmed that reporting, although the lab has said it will wait until Tuesday to discuss the project.
“The recent experiment is a first-of-its-kind feat that could lead to an effective process for producing a zero-carbon alternative to fossil fuels and [traditional] nuclear energy,” said Frank Maisano, senior principal focused on energy with the Policy Resolution Group in Washington.
Nuclear fusion is the process of fusing two or more atoms into one larger one, a process that unleashes potentially usable energy as heat, in much the same way the sun heats the Earth. Nuclear power used today is created by a different process, called fission, which relies on splitting atoms and harnessing that energy, while also producing radioactive waste.
Currently, traditional nuclear plants using fission produce about 10% of the world’s electricity, but their proponents have also pushed their expansion as a key to a diverse portfolio of alternative energy.
Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy and society at the University of California at Berkeley, told the Associated Press that nuclear fusion offers the possibility of “basically unlimited” fuel, but only when the technology can be made commercially viable. The basic elements are easily accessible; in fact, they’re available in seawater.
The Livermore lab isn’t the only effort toward a fusion breakthrough, which scientists have worked on for decades.
In Europe earlier this year, a large, doughnut-shaped machine known as a tokamak, developed by scientists working in the English village of Culham, near Oxford, generated a record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained nuclear fusion energy over five seconds during trials, the scientists revealed. That more than doubled the previous record for generating and sustaining fusion.
While scientists have generated fusion energy before it is sustaining the power that has been difficult to achieve. A magnetic field is required to contain the high temperatures created by the fusion process — some 150 million degrees Celsius, 10 times hotter than the center of the sun.
The Livermore lab uses a different technique than the tokamak, with researchers firing a 192-beam laser at a small capsule filled with deuterium-tritium fuel. The lab reported that an August 2021 test produced 1.35 megajoules of fusion energy — about 70% of the energy fired at the target. The lab said several subsequent experiments showed declining results, but researchers believed they had identified ways to improve the quality of the fuel capsule and the lasers’ symmetry.
In Orange County, California, another contender in the fusion race, TAE Technologies, is on track to develop the first commercial prototype power plant for clean fusion energy by 2030, its CEO Michl Binderbauer told MarketWatch earlier this year. Binderbauer had just attended the first-ever White House Fusion Summit.
At that event, administration officials announced what they called a “bold decadal vision” to accelerate the development of commercial fusion energy.
“There’s a fallacy in thinking that solar and wind can solve everything,” said Binderbauer. “Absolutely, they’re wonderful sources of power where it fits. But there are also limitations. There’s no world that can run on 100% renewables.”
Nuclear industry analysts remind that it will take sustaining and repeating the process, and at scale, for the development to change traditional energy markets anytime soon.
“This doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal, but I still doubt how much this impacts the efforts to bring fusion closer to commercial reality. My sense is fusion is at least a decade or more away from any commercialization,” said Jonathan Hinze, president of UxC, LLC, which tracks the uranium and nuclear markets, in an email to MarketWatch.
The Associated Press contributed.
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FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried is arrested in Bahamas, charges pending in U.S.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which faced a colossal collapse this year, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, and is facing criminal charges in the United States, according to a Bahamian official.
The Attorney General of the Bahamas, through spokesman Latrae Rahming, posted a statement on Twitter detailing the arrest. Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, lives in the Bahamas, where the cryptocurrency exchange was also based.
“SBF’s arrest followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition,” the statement reads.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York later tweeted that his office had filed a sealed indictment, which led to the arrest.
“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Damian Williams said in a tweet from the office’s official Twitter account.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are investigating the company, and the New York Times reported last week that Manhattan-based federal prosecutors are investigating whether Bankman-Fried steered prices of cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna to benefit FTX and his Alameda hedge fund. The former chief executive of FTX was expected to testify remotely in front of a House Financial Services Committee panel on Tuesday.
FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, filed for bankruptcy protection in November, and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. The new CEO of FTX, John J. Ray III, is expected to testify in front of members of Congress on Tuesday, and in prepared remarks released Monday, he said that Bankman-Fried’s management of FTX was an “utter failure” that lacked any level of financial control.
MarketWatch staff writer Robert Schroeder contributed to this article.
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