William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

The Texas A&M Master and LL.M. programs (e.g. international tax, transfer pricing, wealth management, or risk management) are accepting applications from financial professionals and from lawyers. Over 850 enrolled, the enrollment for a course’s section is kept to between 20 and a maximum of 30 so that each student receives meaningful feedback throughout the course from the full-time academic faculty and renowned professional case study leaders, and each other via teamwork and peer review. https://law.tamu.edu/distance-education

Prof. William H. Byrnes

Robert Bloink, J.D., LL.M.

This week, we have details on the Washington state official guidance that’s been released on the state-level plan for taxing non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 

Washington State Announces Plan to Tax NFTs. Washington state recently released guidance on how non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be taxed under the state’s sales tax rules. This guidance is the first to emerge at the state level and, while it only applies in Washington, it’s expected that other states may follow suit. The Washington state guidance provides information on how the Washington state department of revenue would source the sales. Under the guidance, if the buyer received the digital product at a seller’s business location, the sale would be sourced to that location. If not, the sale would be sourced to where the buyer receives the NFT. If neither of these two rules apply, the location of the customer’s address that’s given in the seller’s records. If these three rules don’t apply, the sale would be sourced to the location of the customer that can be derived from the sale process itself (including the buyer’s credit card billing address). Finally, if none of this information is available, the location of the sale is the address from which the digital code was first available for transmission by the seller, or from which a digital automated service was provided. Any location that solely provides the digital transfer of the product is disregarded. The guidance does not directly address situations where the seller does not know the buyer’s location, but seems to imply that the location of the seller’s server would be the deemed location if the seller does not take steps to identify the buyer’s location. For more information on virtual currency taxation, visit Tax Facts Online. Read More

IRS Announces 2023 Contribution Threshold for Premium Tax Credit Eligibility Purposes. The ARPA expanded the premium tax credit rules to provide a more generous ACA benefit for 2021 and 2022. Typically, the premium tax credit is available to taxpayers with household income between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line. ARPA generally eliminated the upper income limit and increased the amount of the premium tax credit (the percentage of household income that individuals are required to contribute to their health insurance coverage decreased to 9.61% in 2022). For 2023, even more taxpayers may qualify for the tax credit because the IRS recently announced that the affordability threshold will decrease significantly, to 9.12% for 2023. This decrease means that many employers will be required to pay more for employee coverage in 2023 because employer-sponsored coverage will only be deemed affordable if the employee’s required contribution for self-only coverage does not exceed 9.12% of the employee’s household income. For more information on the premium tax credit income requirements, visit Tax Facts Online. Read More 

HSAs vs. FSAs: Can They Cover the Same Costs? HSAs and FSAs can cover many of the same types of qualified medical expenses, as defined in IRC Section 213(d). However, HSAs can cover some additional expenses that FSAs are not permitted to cover. For example, HSAs can reimburse account owners for qualified long-term care expenses on a tax-free basis (FSAs cannot). However, HSAs can only reimburse for health expenses of the account owner’s child if that child qualifies as a dependent. FSAs, on the other hand, can reimburse for those expenses if the child is under the age of 27 as of the end of the tax year (regardless of whether the child qualifies as a dependent). HSAs can also make distributions even if the account owner uses the money for non-medical expenses (although penalty taxes will apply), while FSAs are only permitted to make distributions to cover qualified expenses. For more information on the FSA rules, visit Tax Facts Online. Read More  

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Texas A&M, operating budget of $9.6 billion (FY2022) and capital budget of $1.9 billion, is #1 for U.S. public universities, one of only 60 accredited U.S. universities of the American Association of Universities (R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity) and one of only 17 U.S. universities that hold the triple U.S. federal grant of Land, Sea, and Space! The law school, ranked in the 1st tier of law schools and is ranked in the top 10 for the employment of its graduating law students among U.S. law schools.

• Ranked in top 20 public universities by Wall Street Journal / Times Higher Education (2020)
• #2 endowment for U.S. public universities, #8 overall
• #1 of U.S. public universities for a superior education at an affordable cost
• #1 for most CEOs employed by Fortune 500
• top 10 for the employment of its law graduates
• Rank #11 by Money Best Colleges Report, 2021 and #5 in U.S. among public universities (Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson’s, PayScale.com, Money/College Measures calculations)
• Texas A&M ranks #1 in Texas, #1 in the SEC, and #12 in the U.S. in Washington Monthly’s 2020 overall college rankings based on the quality of education, accessibility, graduation rates, student involvement, and research: see tx.ag/WashMonth20
• The School of Law enrollment is 850 Master/LL.M. students with a maximum of 30 per course section. The university enrollment is 70,000 degree seekers.