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Accounting News Roundup: GOP Donors Get Stingy Over Tax Law; Seattle vs. Amazon | 05.15.18

Top GOP donors close wallets over tax law [CNN]
Wealthy hedge fund guys like Paul Singer, Ken Griffin, and Dan Loeb are miffed about “favored treatment for corporations under the law” and are withholding donations to Republican candidates and the party’s national committee as punishment. Collectively, the boycotters donated $50 million during the 2016 election cycle.

IRS may nix blue states’ workaround on tax deduction caps [CNBC]
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin doesn’t appreciate the efforts of state legislatures in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut that have established municipality charitable funds that could accept contributions from taxpayers in exchange for tax credits. Sayeth Steve: “I hope that the states are more focused on cutting their budgets and giving tax cuts to their people in their states than they are in trying to evade the law.”

Seattle Scales Back Tax in Face of Amazon’s Revolt, but Tensions Linger [NYT]
When the Seattle city council proposed a $500-per-employee tax on big companies to fund affordable housing and homeless services, Amazon played hardball, “halt[ing] two major expansion projects in Seattle in protest over the larger tax increase.” The city council eventually passed a smaller tax, $275 per employee, and included a sunset provision. Amazon was still unimpressed, saying, “We remain very apprehensive about the future created by the council’s hostile approach and rhetoric toward larger businesses, which forces us to question our growth here.”

Previously, on Going Concern…

In Open Items, someone’s asking about a community-based app for consultants.

From the archives: Is This the Most Embarrassing Thing To Ever Happen to an Accountant at Work?

See also: Tormentors of IRS Fresno Location Have Lost Their Sense of Scatological Humor

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