Tootfinder

If a sitting president can direct the IRS to investigate political enemies, revoke nonprofit status from dissenting institutions, or selectively enforce tax law to reward loyalty,
the agency no longer serves the public.
It serves power.
The slow hollowing of the IRS through funding cuts, staff attrition, and the erosion of norms yields the same result:
a weakened institution unable to enforce the law, uphold equity, or hold the powerful to account.
And when th…

The Fiscal State Under Siege: Why People Hate the IRS, and Why You Should Care
How Trump, DOGE, and Project 2025 Are Turning the IRS Into a Tool of Authoritarian Rule Editor’s Introduction: Hello readers, it's Nathan Tankus and I am very happy to bring to you the first in a long multi-part series on the IRS spearheaded by Anisha Steephen. Anisha worked for

Silicon Valley is pushing senators to follow the House in reviving a favorable tax benefit that disappeared because of a US tax law Section 174 change in 2017 (Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/06/20/silicon-valley-big-tech-tax-benefit

Silicon Valley is pushing revival of game-changing tax benefit for startups
This could change the math for a slew of startups, and even Big Tech.

GOP wants to cut waste. Critics say SNAP exemption could do opposite. (Mariana Alfaro/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/20/snap-tax-law-error-rate/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250720/p7#a250720p7

Oh my. FFOTUS' "Highway to US Bankruptcy Bill" has even more hidden gifts to the uber-wealthy:
I've done several start ups and have had founders shares. I have had gains of 6000000%
This bill would have eliminated my Federal income tax (actually "Alternative Minimum Tax") on those gains.
Now-a-days, it is often the case that only a very few founders (and investors) get true shares. Many employees get "stock equivalents". I would sus…

How Republicans Supersized Silicon Valley’s Favorite Tax Break
Tucked into the huge set of tax cuts that Republicans passed into law this month was the expansion of an unusually valuable tax break for start-up investors.

Using Large Language Models for Legal Decision-Making in Austrian Value-Added Tax Law: An Experimental Study
Marina Luketina, Andrea Benkel, Christoph G. Schuetz
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08468

Using Large Language Models for Legal Decision-Making in Austrian Value-Added Tax Law: An Experimental Study
This paper provides an experimental evaluation of the capability of large language models (LLMs) to assist in legal decision-making within the framework of Austrian and European Union value-added tax (VAT) law. In tax consulting practice, clients often describe cases in natural language, making LLMs a prime candidate for supporting automated decision-making and reducing the workload of tax professionals. Given the requirement for legally grounded and well-justified analyses, the propensity of L…

Trump’s tax law includes a $40,000 SALT cap. Here’s who qualifies.
The new GOP tax law quadruples how much people can deduct in state and local taxes off their federal returns, offering significant relief to high earners in many Democratic-led states by partially undoing a big change in President Donald Trump’s 2017 law.

That 2017 law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, limited the deduction to $10,000 a year, imposing a cap for the first time as a way of reducing the bill’s overall cos…

Trump’s tax law includes a $40,000 SALT cap. Here’s who qualifies.
The changes were secured by congressional Republicans who represent high-tax states.

Taxes on Social Security are hardly affected by Trump's bill.
But the increase in the "State & Local Tax" deduction (SALT) from $10k to $40k?
That's a big deal for Californians.
✅ How the New Tax Law Will Actually Affect Your Tax Bill - Retirement Nerds
https://youtub…

The Johnson Amendment is not exactly a difficult law to parse.
To keep their sweet tax-exempt status, religious groups can’t endorse political candidates.
But evangelicals want to have their cake and eat it too. -- They don’t want to pay taxes, but they do want ministers to be able to climb into the pulpit and tell their flock who to vote for.
The "Alliance Defending Freedom", the hard-right law firm with a truly staggering track record of getting the United St…

Goodbye, separation of church and state
Churches now have extra special speech rights, thanks to Trump.

Trump signs big tax cut and spending bill into law in July Fourth ceremony (Scott Wong/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-signs-big-tax-cut-spending-bill-law-july-fourth-ceremony-rcna216753
http://www.memeorandum.com/250704/p59#a250704p59

So, the #Austrian Parliament ignores all expert opinion and ratifies a law to allow #statetrojan #spyware to be bought and used, making the whole population less safe while spending tax money on…

Trotz Widerstands im Nationalrat: Messengerüberwachung beschlossen
Nach jahrelanger Diskussion ist die Messengerüberwachung am Mittwoch vom Nationalrat ermöglicht worden. Widerstand gab es nicht nur von FPÖ und Grünen, sondern auch innerhalb der Koalition von NEOS-Abgeordneten. Mit der Vorlage wird es dem Staatsschutz künftig möglich sein, unverschlüsselte und verschlüsselte Nachrichten bei Diensten wie WhatsApp und Signal auszulesen.

Pretty amazing. And yet, the majority of Americans won’t see this story because the truth is paywalled but the bullshit is free. Which feels more and more to me like one of the world’s most important problems.
https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/114580574368958399

Trump’s newly signed tax and spending law, eviscerated Biden-era incentives for clean technologies such as wind and solar power.
Now Democrats aim to flip the usual partisan energy debate
by portraying Republicans as the party of electricity shortages and rising prices.
Their targets would include the moderate Republicans who spent months urging Congress to preserve the Biden tax breaks because of their projected economic gains for GOP-held districts
— only to fold a…

House Republicans who voted to pass Donald Trump’s tax bill last week
💥know it’s going to slash the federal Medicaid program by $1 trillion
🔥and kick millions of people off of their health care.
But that sounds bad.
And people already hate this law.
So instead of saying that,
Republicans are trying out a new way of talking about the bill they all voted for:
👉They just pretend they voted to increase Medicaid spending!

The GOP’s New Lie After Cutting $1 Trillion From Medicaid: We Gave It More Money!
“We are increasing Medicaid expenditures by $200 billion,” Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) falsely said of Trump’s tax law, which will strip health care from millions.

With the Trump’s domestic policy law signed,
states will have to administer many of the cuts
and decide how much they can spend to keep their citizens insured and fed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/us/poli

States Brace for Added Burdens of Trump’s Tax and Spending Law
With the president’s domestic policy law signed, states will have to administer many of the cuts and decide how much they can spend to keep their citizens insured and fed.

Musk forms new political party after split with Trump over president's signature tax cuts law (Michelle L. Price/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-political-party-92353942308fee929a937b17113e077e
http://www.memeorandum.com/250706/p35#a250706p35

GOP tax bill includes a $6,000 ‘senior deduction.’ Here’s who qualifies.
Under current law, most taxpayers claim the standard deduction of $15,000 (or $30,000 for couples)
to reduce their tax liability,
though the GOP tax bill would increase those amounts slightly.
Additionally, seniors already qualify for an additional deduction of $2,000 (or $3,600 for couples).

The Senate bill would create a third category that gives seniors an additional $6,000 (or $12,000) off…

GOP tax bill includes a $6,000 ‘senior deduction.’ Here’s who qualifies.
The provision emerged from President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to end taxes on Social Security. But experts say many are excluded.

In a vote of 218-214, Republicans passed Trump’s megabill,
sending it to the president’s desk by his self-imposed Independence Day deadline
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jul/03/trump-big-bill-…

Loser: U.S. factories
When Democrats in 2022 created and expanded a slew of federal tax breaks for electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, batteries,
they designed them to encourage companies to use components made in the United States.
That spurred a manufacturing boom, including solar-panel glass recyclers in Georgia and electric-vehicle assembly lines in Kentucky.
The new law could derail many of those factories.
The old tax credit for solar power, for…

How the G.O.P. Bill Will Reshape America’s Energy Landscape
Here’s a rundown on the winners and losers in the legislation muscled through Congress.

The fate of Trump’s megabill could come down to a fight over clean energy tax credits,
as a handful of Senate Republicans stage a last-minute rally to preserve wind and solar incentives from Democrats’ 2022 climate law.
Conservatives thought they secured a major win ahead of floor action on their megabill when Trump convinced Senate Majority Leader John Thune to crack down on tax credits for wind and solar energy from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.),…

"Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom."
The announcement from Musk comes after Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla fiercely opposed.
Musk said previously that he would start a new political party and spend money to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.