Tax Chats

Epizódok

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  The Everywhere Millionaire: A Chat with Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick about their new book 15.09.2026 39p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott talk with economists Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick about their new book, The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There, in which they use vast amounts of tax return data to gather evidence that paints a picture of who America’s rich really are and how they got there. It’s not just public-company CEOs, but franchise owners and car dealership owners. They finish by giving advice to Scott’s kids about how they can end up rich. Buy th...
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  Brandon Arnold on Data Centers 25.08.2026 30p

  Send us Fan Mail Scott and Jeff speak with Brandon Arnold , the Executive Vice President of the National Taxpayer's Union, about data centers. Do they drive up real estate prices? Do they use too much water? Are they just a substitute for people's fears about AI? And, what are they doing for property taxes (this is, after all, Tax Chats!). Read Brandon's article on data centers here: https://www.ntu.org/publications/detail/smart-policies-not-kneejerk-bans-can-help-taxpayers-benefit-from-data-...
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  Jared Walczak on the Laffer Mesa 10.08.2026 32p

  Send us Fan Mail Recent research suggests that the Laffer curve is less curve-like than originally thought. Jeff and Scott talk with Jared Walczak from the Tax Foundation about the Laffer Curve, and why we think it is mesa-like, based on his writing here: https://thesaltroad.net/p/the-laffer-mesa.
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  Wasteful Tax Expenditures: A Chat with Calvin Johnson 13.07.2026 35p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott talk about wasteful tax expenditures with Calvin Johnson, which Professor Johnson believes includes basically all tax expenditures.
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  Tax the Ultrarich Without Throwing Out Realization: A conversation with Brian Galle 06.07.2026 35p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with Brian Galle about his new paper, How to Tax the Ultrarich. Most proposals that seek to tax the very wealthy differently eliminate the principle of realization, such as wealth taxes or mark-to-market regimes. These approaches carry considerable baggage, including liquidity problems, valuation problems, and related concerns. By contrast, Brian proposes a tax that eliminates some of the value of deferral, which would reduce the incentive to hold as...
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  Lobbying for the National Association of Manufacturers: A Chat with Charles Crain 29.06.2026 35p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott speak with Charles Crain, Managing Vice President of Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Charles works closely with NAM’s member companies to advocate for tax policies that support manufacturers and strengthen the manufacturing sector. In this episode, Jeff and Scott first discuss the important matter of how to pronounce NAM (NOT like Viet-NAM). They then discuss NAM’s role in the policy process, how the organization identifies and ...
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  Benjamin Jaros on Colonial Tobacco Tariffs 08.06.2026 28p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with Ben Jaros, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, about his paper, “Tobacco Tariffs in the Colonial Chesapeake.” Ben explains how tobacco tariffs shaped the finances of colonial Maryland and Virginia, the English Crown, and the broader Atlantic economy from the early 1600s through the Revolutionary War. We discuss who actually bore the burden of these tariffs, why European consumers may have paid most of the cost, and how tobacco revenue helps e...
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  Tax Research with AI: A Chat with Ben Alarie (with offer for tax profs) 30.05.2026 38p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with the CEO of BlueJ, an AI-powered tax research tool, about updates on BlueJ. Scott announces that BlueJ now offers their product free for tax professors.
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  The Tax Policy Center: Chatting with Elena Patel 26.05.2026 31p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with Elena Patel about the Tax Policy Center, where she is co-director. We talk about the history of the TPC, who works there, and its mission.
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  Former IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel on the IRS 29.04.2026 34p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott interview Danny Werfel, a former IRS commissioner under President Obama and President Biden. They talk about his background, the request from President Obama and Biden that he lead the IRS, challenges and opportunities he encountered at the IRS, and what he would change about the agency if he were IRS King for a day.
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  Inconsistency In Crypto Tax Compliance Providers: A Chat with Tyler Menzer 23.02.2026 38p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott talk with Tyler Menzer, an assistant professor of accounting at Texas Christian University, about his recent research on cryptocurrency tax reporting. In the project, Tyler submitted the same set of cryptocurrency transactions to multiple crypto tax software and reporting services, many of which present themselves as tracking or reporting tools rather than tax preparation providers. He found that these services often produced very different calculations o...
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  What is "The Tax Law": A Chat with Michael Kaercher 17.02.2026 32p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with Mike Kaercher, Deputy Director of the Tax Law Center at NYU Law, about where tax law comes from. We often refer to “tax law,” but in this episode we unpack what that actually means—how the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, and court cases, all the rest, all fit together, and who actually writes the words on the pages we consider to be tax law.
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  The Supreme Court and Tariffs: A Chat with Conor Clarke 09.02.2026 40p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with Conor Clarke, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, about the Supreme Court case challenging President Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed by executive order. The key questions are whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes the types of tariffs President Trump has put in place, if it does, whether Congress can delegate tariff-setting power that broadly even if they want to. What will the Court decide?
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  How the US Weaned Itself off Tariffs: A chat with Joe Thorndike 02.02.2026 42p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with Joe Thorndike about how the United States moved from relying heavily on tariffs to building the modern income-tax-based system we know today. Joe is a tax historian and journalist, and writes for Tax Notes, where he writes widely on the history and politics of U.S. tax policy. They walk through the political and economic forces that made tariffs both attractive—and eventually untenable—as a main source of revenue. Along the way, they discuss the...
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  What can we learn from 25 Years of Tax History? A Chat with Jason DeBacker 26.01.2026 32p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott talk with Jason DeBacker about his new paper, Learning from 25 Years of Changes in Business Tax Policy (with Aerfate Haimiti). Jason is an associate professor of economics at the University of South Carolina and the director of the Policy Simulation Library, an open-source effort that helps researchers and policymakers analyze policy. They discuss his work at PSL and what the last 25 years of business tax changes have taught us—whether bonus depreciation boosts...
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  A Chat about the Small Business Stock Exclusion with David Mitchell 26.12.2025 25p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with David Mitchel, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, about the small business stock exclusion, recent changes to it, and an article that David wrote with Kyle Pomerleau about why we should get rid of it.
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  Taxes and Christmas: What we Know about Mary and Joseph's Tax Situation, with Roman Historian Anna Dolganov 18.12.2025 31p

  Send us Fan Mail Luke 2 tells us that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem "to be taxed", and while there, the baby Jesus was born. But, what do we know about that taxing from history? Did everyone travel? What was the general tax environment in the Roman world at the time? Did they actually remit a tax, or, what was the purpose of this trip? Jeff and Scott chat with Roman historian Anna Dolganov about these questions, and more. Anna's previous appearance on the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com...
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  Death and Taxes: A chat with documentary filmmaker Justin Schein 02.12.2025 31p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott talk with Justin Schein. They discuss Justin's newest film, and the issues and questions it brings up. Justin's newest film is Death and Taxes, which "is a feature documentary about wealth, inequality and the American Dream, viewed through the lens of the estate tax and the very personal story of a father and son at odds over what kind of inheritance we want to leave our kids and our country." Learn more about the film here: https://www.deathandtaxesfilm....
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  A Chat with Pete Sepp, President of the National Taxpayers Union 19.11.2025 35p

  Send us Fan Mail We start by explaining the Tax Chats DC Tour, 2025, an exclusive live event! Then, Jeff and Scott chat with Pete Sepp, President of the National Taxpayers Union. They talk about the work the NTU has done in the past, and what it currently does, including advocate for legislation that is beneficial to taxpayers and engaging in litigation the NTU believes will bring about taxpayer-friendly changes. Pete gives advice to those who want to make the world a friendly place for taxpa...
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  Progressive! A Chat with Ajay Mehrotra about Edwin Seligman 12.11.2025 29p

  Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Scott chat with Ajay Mehrotra, law professor at Northwestern, about the economist Edwin Seligman. They discuss Seligman's academic legacy, his views on progressive taxation, his influence on Columbia University, his students, and his views on tax policy.