THREAD: GOP Senators say they're trying to scale back the SALT cap relief in the House bill. But could the approach to SALT in the Senate bill actually end up *more* generous & costly overall than the House bill? Do Senators – or does anyone – even know, despite the intense political focus on SALT?

New JCT distributional estimates of proposed tax changes by the Senate Finance Committee. Compared to current law, the bill heavily skews benefits to the wealthy as a share of after-tax income. 1/

Full recording of our discussion on risks to taxpayer privacy from DOGE & related efforts featuring Daniel Werfel, Lily Batchelder, Brandon DeBot, Elizabeth Laird, and David Padrino nyu.zoom.us/rec/share/IF...

Looking forward to this discussion starting at 1:30 with Danny Werfel and cybersecurity, IT modernization, and tax policy experts!

On June 3, I'm moderating a panel for the @taxlawcenter.org on the privacy risks of unprecedented access / sharing of taxpayer data across government. We'll hear from Former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel plus Brandon DeBot, Elizabeth Laird & David Padrino. Please join! nyu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

New @centeronbudget.bsky.social analysis of the draft GOP tax plan released yesterday: Unsurprisingly, it provides enormous tax cuts for the wealthy—including an average annual $65k cut for the top 1%—while doing little for low- and moderate-income families in 2027 (and even less by 2029).

The President just effectively signed a statement that he is committing a crime, violating a criminal statute enacted with overwhelming bipartisan majorities (it passed 96-2 in the Senate). Here is the law and his post. 1/3

Harvard may not be at the top of most people’s list of favorite charitable causes, but if the President’s and WH's unlawful interference in IRS actions regarding specific TPs and charities isn’t stopped, it means he or any president can come for your church or community group.

The silence from Republican lawmakers re: Trump’s suggestions that IRS audit specific tax exempt orgs is deafening. Here’s a short history of how Rs and Ds responded to prior IRS reviews of tax exempts when *no* political appointees, let alone the President, were interfering. 1/

Sharing this letter with my colleagues on the @nyulaw faculty. We have very different views on what the law is and should be, but share deep concern about this Administration’s attacks on the independence of academic institutions, lawyers, and judges. drive.google.com/file/d/1yysJ...

This is a profound undermining of the rule of law. All Americans should be very worried about what it would mean for the President and his advisors to be able to target audits for political reasons on the nonprofits in their lives, whether a small congregation or a day care center. 1/3

What could possibly go wrong? 🤔 “Corcos has discussed plans for DOGE to build ‘one new API to rule them all… A ‘mega API’ could potentially allow someone with access to export all IRS data to the systems of their choosing, including private entities.” www.wired.com/story/doge-h...

1/ IRS officials are reportedly "aghast" at this request; all taxpayers should be, too. On Friday, before @jacobbogage.bsky.social broke this news about the escalation of the request @taxlawcenter.org explained one of many reasons why it could harm taxpayer rights: taxlawcenter.org/blog/irs-dhs...

On 4/9, join us for a conversation about DOGE & the administrative state, featuring former Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Tax Law Center experts including former OMB Director Shalanda Young and professors @lilybatch.bsky.social & @davidkamin.bsky.social taxlawcenter.org/events/nyu-l...

A great explanation of why it is such a big deal and bad idea to allow DOGE access to access tax data in unprecedented ways it is demanding (in addition to violating the law as far as we can tell based on reporting) news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights...

My group at @budgetlab.bsky.social has some good work out this morning on IRS funding and the forgone revenue of the IRS cuts the workforce by 50K workers: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/rev...

The giant cut in IRS is effectively a tax cut disproportionately for top of income spectrum and done in worst possible way-a reward to aggressive tax positions and lawbreaking-and demoting top lawyer risks IRS itself not following the laws on the books. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

There’s been a lot of talk recently about cutting funding and staffing at the IRS. New work from the Budget Lab shows that if the IRS shrinks by 50% we estimate that this would result in 350 billion net forgone revenue over the 10-year budget window. 1/ @budgetlab.bsky.social

More on Trump administration efforts to replace/override top IRS lawyers raising strong concerns that DOGE push for extraordinarily broad access to, and sharing of, confidential taxpayer information is not authorized by the law. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

The series of IRS officials who have put the law above their personal job security join a line of public servants - stretching back to Treasury and IRS leaders during the Nixon era - who have resisted unlawful attempts by elected officials to weaponize taxpayer data and systems.

IRS staff are right to be concerned (as story reports): officials who disclose taxpayer data outside the bounds of the law are exposed to potential criminal and civil liability.

If the Administration’s new appointee for the top IRS lawyer accedes to DOGE requests for extraordinarily broad access to confidential taxpayer information despite the law, taxpayers’ data and their rights will be at risk of large-scale breach and abuse.

Bill Paul is an extraordinary public servant who served as Acting Chief Counsel under 3 administrations, including Trump I. I fear what this signals given DOGE’s push for IRS to approve extraordinarily broad sharing of taxpayers’ confidential data across federal agencies. 1/3

Deeply troubling allegations that DOGE affiliates were hastily given access to broad data systems at SSA containing highly sensitive tax data, and that DOGE affiliates were not following standard security safeguards for that info 1/4 www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The Social Security angle: the IRS collects payroll taxes, too. You know, the $$$ that pays for the Social Security benefits you know & love. In fact, 3/4 taxpayers pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes. Obviously they’re trying to help rich tax cheats. But this hurts Social Security, too.

We have research on this Chart below understates ROI of IRS enforcement, as it excludes deterrence effects Post-audit, noncompliant taxpayers start paying much more in taxes voluntarily. These additional taxes =3x revenue raised from initial audit, on avg, over next 14 yrs bsky.app/profile/cram...

Hard to overstate the idiocy of such a decision. This will worsen taxpayer customer service. And it will INCREASE deficits.

Laying off nearly 50K public servants at the IRS would be an unlawful and reckless violation of Congress’s decision to fund the agency at a level that it thinks is necessary to adequately administer the tax law. 1/2 www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/u...

DOGE is reportedly demanding IRS share highly sensitive taxpayer data w/multiple agencies. I don’t see how this abides by bipartisan laws that balance the benefits of responsible data sharing against the risks to taxpayers through careful limits and guardrails. 1/4 medium.com/@taxlawcente...

Former IRS Commissioners serving under every President going back to Reagan, including Trump: The mass, indiscriminate firings at the IRS will increase deficits, risk filing season disruptions, and shift tax burdens from tax cheats on to honest taxpayers. 1/4 www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/o...

I remain deeply concerned about DOGE’s access to IRS data. It is still unclear what data is being shared, whether it is adequately anonymized, and what protections are in place to guard against WH interference in individual enforcement decisions. More from @TaxLawCenterNYU: 1/4

Important story on IRS layoffs. A few additions: Last year IRS sent over 120 million refunds. There is a major risk Americans’ refunds could be late or wrong when you indiscriminately fire thousands of employees in the middle of the filing season. 1/5 www.cbsnews.com/video/irs-em...

A few further thoughts on DOGE accessing the IDRS database at the IRS: I led the Treasury Office of Tax Policy and have spoken to a number of former career and political appointees at Treasury and IRS. None can recall a political appointee ever having access to this database. 1/5

This is deeply concerning. I’m unaware of any instance of political appointees at Treasury or IRS having access to this database. I didn’t and the political appointees on my team did not. 1/3 www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...