Tax

The U.S. has dropped a key demand in negotiations over digital taxation of technology companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., lifting a barrier that had raised transatlantic trade tensions and prevented an international deal.

A fresh initiative in the U.S. Senate to put a tax penalty on big companies as a way of forcing higher minimum wages prompted a skeptical reaction among economists including a top adviser to former President Barack Obama.

The House passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief plan, spanning $1,400 stimulus checks, enhanced jobless benefits and fresh funding for vaccines and testing. Also included: a minimum-wage measure with no prospects of passing in the Senate.

The uncertainties in the year ahead are making it difficult for corporate tax executives to decide exactly what to do, given the challenges surrounding COVID-19.

New York prosecutors have received eight years of Donald Trump’s individual and corporate tax returns from the former president’s accounting firm, according to a spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Two Senate committee chiefs are looking at ways to raise taxes on companies paying workers less than $15 an hour, as part of a new strategy to include President Joe Biden’s push to boost the minimum wage to that level in his COVID-19 aid bill.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is weighing adding a provision to the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan that would put a penalty tax on big companies that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour, a Democratic aide said on condition of anonymity.

Corporations are starting to buy digital assets like Bitcoin to bolster their treasuries, but the volatility in prices could put a dent in their balance sheet.

A ‘wave’ of claims for the Domestic Production Activities Deduction sparks an alert.

RAP sheet; shipping out; Pelicon; and other highlights of recent tax cases.