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>> we will have a crossover with our webinar series on taxing issues. we have also had a lot of discussion these days about international tax and the attempts to reform corporate tax on an international basis. that feeds into my other job as the editor in chief international. for that we have spoken with the head pascal as well as the head cochairs of the inclusive

framework, the group working on the nuts and both of those proposals. >> i want to tell viewers how they can talk to you. you can call us according to your region. if you are in the eastern central time zone. mountain pacific, 202748 8001. you can tweet us and also send us a text. the deadline for taxes is next monday, not this coming one but next monday. if you have already filed tax returns what can you expect? >> we heard from the irs commissioner this week that the -- he was on the hill discussing this filing season. there are actually two different expectations. if you are an e-file or it is being -- e-filer it is being handled quickly. if you are a paper filer not so

much. there has been a long backlog of paper filing. as this tax year began, there was a significant backlog of previous year tax filings on paper. >> so what are you you looking at if you filed in paper? guest: according to commissioner reddick's testimony, they still have, it was, several million tics -- tax returns they had not gotten to on paper from last year. he promised they will work through the backlog this year. how this plays off for individuals i cannot speculate. host: we have the testimony of irs commissioner charles rettig at the senate. >> with respect to our current filing season we are off to a healthy start.

through april 1 we have processed more than 89 million returns, issued more than 63 million refunds totaling more than $204 billion. there are essentially two filing seasons. taxpayers who choose to electronically file who request a direct deposit are receiving their refunds in approximately 21 days. many have received those with respect to taxpayers who submit paper returns, our processing is first in, first out. we are processing approximately 2.7 million returns that we received in calendar year 2020 one. so these taxpayers end up at the end of that stack. host: why is the irs having such a hard time with paper returns? do they not have enough people? guest: it is a people and money

issue. it has been building for a while, as well as the pandemic, that caused a significant disruption. the biden administration proposed money for the irs, they got a 5% increase in the budget for this year. they also received enhanced hiring capability and during his testimony, commissioner rettig, i believe he discussed the additional hiring they are doing, something on the order of $2500 dust when he 500 new hires or something there about -- 2500 new hires or something there about with the goal of getting new ones. that is part of his plan to deal with that backlog. host: will that take care of the backlog? guest: i don't know. it is a large problem. the commissioner thinks he can do it but there are some who are skeptical. host: it seems like people need to move to electronic if they can, because paper filing is

taking a long time. guest: and in his testimony he discussed there are a good majority, i think he said over 90% of filers are using the electronic system. and that definitely helps with the irs system of trying to work through these things. as it has been explained, there is a process of taking these paper returns and inputting that information. they have discussed other methods they can use to avoid that, 2d barcodes have been discussed by the national taxpayer advocate, which would allow for the electronic creation of a tax return, then a barcode to be created so the information does not have to get manually reentered. host: there's a headline here from the washington post that says fighting a red-hot job market, the irs struggles to rebuild. let's talk to our viewers,

cheryl is first up in brookline, massachusetts. caller: take you for taking my call. i have a question i've not been able to get a consistent answer to. i can't get any answer from the irs and from one of the major online tax preparers systems. my husband and i both get social security from the state. he also is a dual citizen in the u.k.. he has worked 30 years here but he also get social security, a state pension in the u.k.. we can't get an answer as to whether or not he should be paying taxes on that. the cpa says yes, the major online tax preparers is absolutely not, these air -- there is a u.s. u.k. trade

agreement, but because we do not know what to do we have been paying taxes on that british social security, which does not seem fair. if it was u.s. social security, it would not be fully taxed. host: let's get a response. guest: i can't speak to your specific situation. other than to recommend finding an expert who can interpret the u.k.-u.s. tax treaty. i'm not an expert in that area. host: tom is calling from denver, colorado. good morning, tom. caller: the morning. can you hear me ok? host: yes. caller: my question is i'm using turbotax online. i moved money from one ira company to another one and took part of that and put it into a

roth, and i got my 1099s but it changed my adjusted gross income to way too much money's on getting a huge amount -- says i'm getting a huge amount back that it doesn't make any sense. i guess i'm thinking the 1099-r might not of been done right because it should be neutral as far as i'm concerned, just kind of curious on that while i'm working through it. host: what you think? guest: we are falling into i can't give tax advice or speak to your situation. you will need to find someone who understands these specific issues. i'm sorry. host: skip is an washington, d.c. caller: i would like to know, i missed filing my 2020 filing

deadline in 2020 one because of the pandemic and the people. i have so much other things i was dealing with, so what should i do at this point? i want to avoid penalties and things like that. i would like to file for all three years this one time. can i still do that? guest: we are falling into advice. host: i wonder if there was really for the pandemic, for the tax filing or was it just -- guest: there have been many extended -- in the first year of the pandemic they extended the filing season automatically. this last year there was not an extension, but for people in particular situations like victims of hurricane ida, they got long periods to file their tax returns.

yeah, i don't really have -- unfortunately i can't give tax advice or speak to specific issues. host: we got a tweet from steve and he says this. "i don't know who is still filing via mail but they need to join the 21st century. i got my refund in a week filing electronically." and this is a text from sean in performance, -- fall mouth, -- fall myth -- falmouth, massachusetts, "can the guest explain the difference between the rich elite who don't pay taxes and break the law and rich elite who use laws passed by congress to pay as little as possible? does your guest think that taxes overall are out of control?" what do you think? guest: i don't have any opinion specifically on whether taxes are out of control.

i will say there are interesting discussions going on about how to tax the very wealthy. the biden administration put out last week its latest budget , which includes a billionaire'' tax. individuals with more than $100 million in assets, so a bit of a misnomer, but over $100 million in assets will be subject to a 20% minimum tax. if it is passed. that gets at an issue that several politicians have been talking about in the u.s., where the very wealthy only pay tax when they sell their assets. they pay capital gains rate at the time that they sell their assets. for some very wealthy, they almost never have to sell their assets. they can borrow against them and there is a step up and basis, where when they pass on their

assets, the assets have the new basis. there is never capital gains recovered on those assets. what this new administration proposal does cents it would to -- dies, at every year, those assets are measured to find out what gains are built into them. for person to has a very large fortune, they will have to look every year and see how much they are worth this year, this is how much they were worth last time i recorded this. that factors into their total income for the 20% minimum tax which has a multiyear payment period. that is one of the many proposals out there. there are several market to market proposals. the alternative would be a wealth tax which elizabeth warren has suggested.

that has a potential constitutional question that is a bit more acute than the constitutional question on the market to market proposals. with market to market, you could argue it is a timing and taxing income with a wealth tax. it is not clear that it falls within what congress is allowed to pass. under the constitution. host: let's look at those numbers on the screen. this is a bidens fiscal 23 budget proposal. that is the minimum tax rate on households worth over $100 million. that applies to income and the value of liquid assets such as stocks and would raise $360 billion in revenue over 10 years according to the white house. let's talk to john in penn valley, california. good morning, john. caller: good morning.

a very simple two questions, one is what is the maximum amount i can give to an individual that they will not have to pay taxes on? and the second part of the question is, if there are three individuals in a family, can i independently send a check to each one of those individuals and they will not have taxes on them? guest: we are falling into advice again. host: but that is tax law, isn't there a minimum? guest: there is an inclusion amount, i don't know it at the top of my head and it is per donor per person exclusion amount. host: so it is per person. so he could give to as many people as long as he does not exceed that amount. guest: i would not go as far to get that advice. recommend discussing it with a i always tax professional before making a move like that. host: marion is in at this,

athens, georgia. caller: i have a question regarding electronic filing. i filed a paper return in 2019 and they did not process it until after i submitted electronically my 2020 return and it was rejected. electronically. so now i am kind of stuck. they finally got to my 2019 return, but my 2020 return -- i don't want to file it by paper and have the same issue because i have 2021 ready. is there a way i can go back and filed electronically my 2020 return? guest: i don't know that but that does speak to the issue the

commissioner was discussing in congress, this massive backlog. it is smaller than it was last year, but it is still an ongoing challenge. host: that was marion in athens, georgia. let's talk to mary in philadelphia, pennsylvania. caller: yes, good morning. i would like to let mr. stewart know that i would encourage everyone to file taxes. even if you are below the operative guidelines, you may be -- poverty guidelines, you may be entitled to the earned income credit, child tax credit, and student loans. i am a retired government worker. from pennsylvania. and people think because they are below the poverty guidelines we end up paying you more than what you actually pay into the system.

and because people are not aware of the tax laws, they really don't file their taxes if they think i did not make that much, i make $10 an hour, nine dollars an hour. you know we pay you more just , like we pay businesses and corporations and they don't pay taxes. we actually pay them more because they hire employees based on that tax system. the problem is with seniors we have no write off to take advantage of the tax system because we do not have businesses, a lot of us. we do not have a nonprofit. so we have to pay the full tax amount. so please, make sure you take advantage if you have student loans. you file your taxes.

because it is to your benefit. i have seen people that have gotten $7,000 back, below the poverty guidelines and had student loans. make sure you take advantage of our tax laws. host: any comments on that? guest: i will note that there is a significant portion of what the does -- the irs does, is distribute money for specific purposes. the earned income tax credit, the child tax credit which was expanded last year and has reverted back to where it was before. there are these refundable tax credits. a tax credit is a one to one reduction on your tax bill. a refundable tax credit means you don't even need a tax

liability for that to count. many people get money back without having tax liability to begin with. host: we have a text from california, "the irs backlogged? no excuse. understaffed. whose fault is that? americans threatened the past two years their refunds will be delayed. when any other country asks for money, the check goes out that night." let's talk to sean in california. caller: good morning, how are you doing? i wanted to ask a question about the little people who want to pay taxes, like myself. during the pandemic, i paid taxes back to the irs. this year i am looking to pay again. i filed single but my job is saying i need to file zero now because i'm not paying enough taxes to the irs. they are taking 10% of taxes.

can you explain to some people that our children are grown and we don't have write-offs but we own homes. which are primaries. what tax write-offs that are from the irs are for us? because the irs just got a lot of money and i feel like they got a lot of money to come after people like me who work ever -- and is keeping this country running. guest: i am sorry to hear about your situation. the one piece of advice i can give -- i am straying into the area of advice, but i think it is just good, standard advice that if in a given tax year you end up with either a large refund or a large bill, revisit your w-4 to make sure your withholding is correct for your particular situation. host: this is from axios, a graph showing tax audits drop

for the highest earners. the number of irs audits for those earning one million or more has been dropping. the shows from 2012 to 2021. you can see that trend going down. what do you think of that? why would the audits be going down for higher earners? guest: this falls into the same discussion about resources of -- and staffing at the irs. it is very difficult to do complex audits. and that is one of the proposals in president biden's build back better bill. the irs is one of the few agencies where if you put money into it, you get more money back.

maybe the mint is the only other one. the idea of build back better was to pay for spending without enforcement of the irs. there is a tax gap, the amount collected versus the amount that should be collected in a given year. that may be between $600 billion and $1 trillion depending on who is estimating. so there is a lot of money to be had through enforcement. the question is, there were many questions about the estimates that were used as offsets in that bill. but it is likely more audits could be performed on this complicated tax to situation -- tax situations with additional funding to the irs. host: florida, nina. hi, nina. caller: good morning. a lot of these people calling in

have specialty questions that your guest either legally cannot say or whatever. mine is very simple. how do i efile? guest: i can point you to the irs website. there are resources for free efiling. with a limited -- there is an income cap on that. beyond that, you are looking at finding individual preparers and services. i'm sorry, i forget, one more i there is one more i would be remiss -- i remember having a discussion in one of our podcast episodes with a former taxpayer advocate who points out that there are free fillable forms . they look like the forms on paper that you can file with the irs directly online. host: let's talk to joan in

rochester, minnesota. caller: i have a question. since corporations consider themselves citizens or people rather than a different entity, how come they are not subject to the same usury laws i am? if they were subject as citizens to laws like the average citizen is interest rates by companies , would drop down to as low or high as we have to pay. i want to know why only certain things make them citizens and other things are that is a totally avoided. that is athat's host: that is a little outside our topic. guest: i don't have much to say to that. it is a very complicated world when you are talking about what exactly a corporation is. host: constance is coming from

cape coral, florida. good morning. caller: yes, dear, my point is -- first of all, the last caller, i think she was right. this trickle-down bull is just bull. they overtax us on things they shouldn't and they forget teachers and forget the people who really make or break this country, like people who put fires out and police officers. children deserve free education. i am 69 years old and i had free education. all it did was make want more education. i broke open every library book i could find. there is hardly anything about the law i don't know so they can't pull the wool over my eyes. i am a very smart woman. i have a 154 iq and i want to

hear marshall blackburn tell us what is her definition is of a woman. host: how does this relate to taxes? caller: taxes need to be fair. and i think children should have free education. you want them to be good citizens? give them free education. the only people that benefit on children being stupid are republicans. host: all right. you know, david, you have an episode called tax mythbusters. what you think is the most common tax myth today? guest: i think it sort of the most nefarious myth of the tax world is that as people are filling up their tax forms this year, the idea that if i get something wrong i am going to jail. we discussed that on the podcast.

it is just a -- yes, it is best to get everything correct and get it right the first time. but making a mistake is not something that is going to get any ordinary person in jail. be the people that end up going to prison really worked at it. host: they were really trying. guest: yes. it is something beyond i forgot to add a w-2 to my form or i forgot to add an interest statement. host: but there could be fines. guest: there are repercussions for it. the irs will definitely send a letter and you can pay penalties and interest. but for the most part, it is not a criminal matter to simply get something wrong on your tax

return. host: let's go back to the irs commissioner. he answered a senator's question on fixing returns that have errors and the impact on customer service. [video clip] >> returns fallout for a matter -- variety of reasons, failure to reconcile impact payments, mismatches, and whatnot. they moved to the error resolution cases. last year at this point, we had 7.7 million returns in error resolution. as of march 31, we have 741,000 returns in error resolution, less than 10%. our efforts are working. we are trending in the right direction. during the summers, we will start seeing the impact of this. and many people -- beyond a telephone call with a live irs employee which i keep trying to make the point that the same employee in other times is

processing paper returns, inventory, and things we get in that context. >> i am just trying to understand, what you said invokes the image of a person who is processing tax returns in some form and then the phone rings and they have to drop what they are doing and pick up the phone. >> not at all. they are taken off the phones and moved to the paper. host: let's go back to the phones. thomas is calling from delray beach, florida. good morning. caller: thank you for having me on. since we are talking about tax myths, i would like to raise this point. one of the criticisms levied towards trump tax cuts is they only applied to the rich. this is false if you look at the brackets. anybody working a minimum wage

job paid less income taxes under trump's tax cuts. so here is my question. why are not democrats demanding that joe biden repeal those parts of the tax cuts if they believe it was unfair for the working and middle-class? they should be calling for joe biden to repeal that law but they are not doing it.

>> that's been essentially the changes that we have seen. so far. there are other changes proposed in the build back better act. such as the extension of the child tax credit going into the future. and also extension of the tax credits for electric vehicles. those haven't passed obviously. so we are seeing not a lot in the way of change on tax policy. but as we saw in the clip, those economic impact payments and advance child tax credits are causing a bit of trouble this year during the filing season.

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calls, texts, facebook comments, and tweets. april 15th, 2022 is when jackie robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball. since 2004, april 15th has been known as jackie robinson day, in honor of the brooklyn dodgers player. sunday on q&a -- the former senior writer for sports illustrated talks about his book, "true: the four seasons of jackie robinson," he writes about his life, career, and his role in the civil rights movement. >> one way to think about this is to realized when he made that debut, mlk had never given a public speech or third sermon. -- or sermon. when we think of that era,

the civil rights movement had not really begun. jackie was truly a pioneer in that sense. when you think about dr. king, probably with a little characteristic generosity, but also being true to fact, he wouldn't have been accepted as he was or gotten where he was if not for had jackie had done. announcer: sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can also listen to q&a and all our podcasts on our free c-span now app. ♪ announcer: at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office. hear many of those conversations on c-span's new podcast, presidential recordings. >> season one focuses on lyndon johnson. you will hear about the civil rights act, 1964 presidential campaign, the march on selma and the war in vietnam. not everyone you they were being recorded -- knew there were

being recorded. >> johnson's secretary's knew, because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. there were the ones who make sure the conversations were taped, as johnson would signal to them through an open door between his office and their . -- theirs. >> you will also hear some blood talk -- some blunt talk. >> [indiscernible] if i don't ever -- can't ever go to the bathroom, i don't go. i don't go anywhere. announcer: presidential recordings. find that on the c-span now mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. ♪ announcer: president biden was joined by vice president kamala harris and former president barack