Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. Or Twitter: @tobyeckert, @brian_faler, @ben_guggenheim, @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Tax. That global tax disclosure movement is being driven by demands for greater corporate transparency from governments and activist investors concerned about environmental, social corporate governance (“ESG”) issues. Predictably, executives are worried about how that information could be used against them — 40 percent of those surveyed by KPMG said the greatest risk would be “giving away competitive intelligence.” Nonetheless, more than 60 percent believe it will be at least five years before such mandates take effect. But the consulting firm suggested that may be wishful thinking. “Although C-suite leaders acknowledge the importance of interlocking their tax and ESG strategies, the clock is ticking,” the report’s authors wrote, and executives “are remiss to think time is on their side.” The AI angle: As with seemingly everything these days, the report says artificial intelligence may be one solution to the complexity of complying with the impending rules. “Embracing AI tools may be the solution to help companies make sense of their vast amounts of data to avoid the risks of having their tax story potentially told for them,” Greg Engle, vice chair-tax at KPMG, said in a statement. “Embracing technology is essential for companies to stay ahead of the curve.” The executives surveyed are receptive to that message: 99 percent agreed AI is the "next frontier" for corporate tax departments and 59 percent reported already using it to improve workflow and ease the workload of some employees. THE GLOVES ARE OFF: The plea deal Hunter Biden recently struck with federal prosecutors over tax and gun charges has added rocket fuel to GOP lawmakers’ offensive against the Justice Department and the FBI. The fight “will become a cornerstone of Republicans' agenda in a chaotic back half of the year,” our Jordain Carney reports this morning. “Speaker Kevin McCarthy has already threatened to explore impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland. Conservatives have also gone after FBI Director Christopher Wray, weighing whether to force a vote recommend booting him from office.” “Additionally, some conservatives who believe the agencies have targeted Republicans are eager to take a scalpel to the FBI and DOJ budgets. Then there’s the long-brewing congressional fight over a soon-to-expire warrantless surveillance program that has sparked bipartisan accusations of abuse by the FBI.” Let’s not forget the IRS. House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) has been joined by Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) in seeking testimony from IRS, Justice Department and Secret Service personnel over whistleblower allegations that Biden administration officials meddled in the tax probe of Hunter Biden. Not to be outdone, lawyers for President Joe Biden’s son have intensified their pushback. In case you missed it, one of Hunter Biden's attorneys, Abbe Lowell, late last week sent Smith a blistering 10-page rebuttal that questioned the credibility of the whistleblowers and the propriety of his investigation. “Releasing the transcripts of and exhibits from interviews of self-styled IRS ‘whistleblowers’ who may be claiming that title in an attempt to evade their own misconduct was an obvious ploy to feed the misinformation campaign to harm our client, Hunter Biden, as a vehicle to attack his father,” Lowell wrote. “It is no secret these interviews were orchestrated recitations of mischaracterized and incomplete ‘facts’ by disgruntled agents who believed they knew better than the federal prosecutors who had all the evidence as they conducted their five-year investigation of Mr. Biden,” Lowell added. Lowell didn’t provide any evidence to back up his suggestions about the whistleblowers’ motives. Smith hit back with a statement defending the whistleblowers and the conduct of his investigation. “It’s little surprise that Hunter Biden’s attorneys are attempting to chill our investigation and discredit the whistleblowers who say they have already faced retaliation from the IRS and the Department of Justice despite statutory protections established by law,” Smith said. “Worse, this letter misleads the public about the lawful actions taken by the Ways and Means Committee, which took the appropriate legal steps to share this information with rest of Congress,” he added. Smith and his colleagues could face other pushback — from within their own party. As Jordain wrote, “conservative efforts could backfire, instead exposing tension with centrist and more establishment Republicans who have bristled at their colleagues' growing attacks on law enforcement — jabs that would have been unthinkable before Trump’s presidency. “The fault lines have already emerged during closed-door House GOP spending meetings in recent weeks, with some lawmakers warning colleagues to think twice about how they use spending bills to target specific agencies. In one session, conservative Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said he privately urged his colleagues to ‘be careful’ about how they talk about Justice Department funding, adding: ‘I’m not in favor of cutting DOJ.’”
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