Author: News Room

Why Trump’s Takedown of an Anti-Bribery Law Could Backfire

President Trump has long argued that a law barring companies from bribing officials of foreign governments stifles deal-making abroad and puts American companies at a disadvantage.But when he effectively put the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act out of commission this week, the order did not elicit the cheers from corporate America that you might have expected. Lawyers who specialize in corporate corruption cases told DealBook that moves to potentially weaken the law could backfire on multinationals by actually raising the cost of doing business overseas.The F.C.P.A. has ensnared the likes of McKinsey, Petrobras and Goldman Sachs in some of the biggest…

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Medicare Doesn’t Pay for Everything: How to Bridge the Cost Gap

Medicare can cover most of your health care needs when you turn 65, but it doesn’t pay for everything. And one of the most significant financial challenges to watch out for are the out-of-pocket costs you can face aside from monthly premiums — including deductibles and other types of cost sharing.Just how much you’ll pay, and when, depends on the type of Medicare enrollment that you choose: traditional Medicare, which is operated by the government and provides care on a fee-for-service basis, or Medicare Advantage, which is run by private insurance companies and operates on a managed care model.There is…

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Uncertainty About Economic Policy Is Hampering Business Decisions

It is an axiom heard countless times in business school lecture halls and on corporate earnings calls: Uncertainty is bad for business.The U.S. economy is about to test that proposition like never before.The first weeks of the second Trump administration have been a dizzying whirlwind of economic policy moves: A spending freeze was declared, then rescinded. Federal programs, and even entire agencies, have been suspended or shut down. Tariffs have been threatened, announced, canceled, delayed or enacted — sometimes in a matter of days or even hours. Measures of economic policy uncertainty have soared to levels normally associated with recessions…

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Woman Pleads Guilty in Covid Tax Credit Scheme That Netted  Million

Some people binge-watched shows during the Covid pandemic. Others picked up pickleball. But according to federal prosecutors, one Las Vegas woman prepared and filed false tax returns for her business and others at a busy average rate of nearly 80 per month.Over a 16-month period beginning in June 2022, the Justice Department said Friday, the woman, Candies Goode-McCoy, filed more than 1,200 returns in order to fraudulently claim Covid-19 tax credits of nearly $100 million.Ms. Goode-McCoy, 34, who pleaded guilty under a plea agreement on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas to charges of conspiracy to defraud the…

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Prominent Cryptocurrency Investor Faces Senate Tax Inquiry

A Senate committee is investigating whether a prominent cryptocurrency investor violated federal tax law to save hundreds of millions of dollars after he moved to Puerto Rico, a popular offshore tax haven, according to a letter reviewed by The New York Times.Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent the letter on Jan. 9 to Dan Morehead, the founder of Pantera Capital, one the largest crypto investment firms.The letter said the Senate Finance Committee was investigating tax compliance by wealthy Americans who had moved to Puerto Rico to take advantage of a special tax break for the island’s residents that can…

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JD Vance Is in Charge of Getting a TikTok Deal. Can He Find a Buyer?

Last week, an aide for Vice President JD Vance reached out to the billionaire Frank McCourt.The topic at hand was Mr. McCourt’s $20 billion long-shot offer to buy TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app. Mr. Vance’s aide wanted details about the bid, which was one of several public overtures for the app, according to two people familiar with the process.The inquiry was one of Mr. Vance’s earliest moves toward corralling a deal for the popular app after President Trump tapped him earlier this month to find an arrangement to save it. TikTok was recently banned in the United States under a…

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Whiskey Offers Window Into the Pain of a Trade War

Liquor lobbyists gathered in a ritzy private club on a recent rainy evening in Brussels to swill cocktails with names like “Toasts Not Tariffs” and fret over the potential disaster confronting their industry. Again.Seven years ago, the spirits industry found itself a casualty in a worldwide trade war as President Trump unleashed tariffs on America’s partners. The European Union retaliated with a spate of tariffs that included a 25 percent charge on American whiskey — aiming to deliver a blow to Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the then majority leader. A series of tit-for-tat tariffs followed, hitting spirits…

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OpenAI Rejects Elon Musk’s Bid to Gain Control of the Company

OpenAI’s board of directors on Friday rejected a $97.4 billion bid by Elon Musk and a consortium of investors to gain control of the artificial intelligence company, deepening a feud between Mr. Musk and OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman.In a statement, Bret Taylor, the chairman of the OpenAI board, said, “OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition.” OpenAI also sent a letter to Mr. Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, saying that the bid was “not in the best interests of OAI’s mission.” Mr. Musk and Mr. Toberoff did not…

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Layoffs Begin at Energy Department, Part of Trump Purge

The Energy Department began laying off staff as the Trump administration accelerated sweeping cuts across the government, according to three people familiar with the matter.Around 1,000 federal workers, all probationary employees, were told they were losing their jobs on Thursday, according to one of the people.More than 300 of those workers were employed at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nation’s nuclear weapons fleet, and about 50 were at the department’s loan programs office, which helps bring new energy technologies to market, said two of the people. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not…

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What to Know About VAT, the Tax System Used in Europe That Trump Despises

President Trump on Thursday ordered his advisers to determine new tariff rates on America’s trading partners, a move that he said would “correct longstanding imbalances in international trade.”As part of his plan, Mr. Trump has taken aim at the value-added tax, a system used widely in Europe and elsewhere to tax the consumption of goods and services. The president and his team describe the tax as giving other countries an unfair trade advantage over the United States.Here’s what to know.What is a value-added tax?It’s a consumption tax that adds tax on a good or service at each stage of production.…

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