ICYMI: The Biden administration isn’t the only one facing allegations of political interference with the IRS. The New York Times reported on Friday that John Kelly, who was a chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, “said in a sworn statement that Mr. Trump had discussed having the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies investigate two F.B.I. officials involved in the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia.” The statement was filed as part of a suit against the Justice Department by former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Strzok, who led the FBI's Russia probe, and Page, who was a bureau attorney, allege the department violated their privacy by publicly disclosing text messages they exchanged that were critical of Trump. “The sworn statements from Mr. Kelly are similar to ones he made to The New York Times in November, in which he said that Mr. Trump had told him that he wanted a number of his perceived political enemies to be investigated by the I.R.S.,” including former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Strzok and Page. Comey and McCabe were indeed chosen for a type of rare, rigorous audit of their 2017 and 2019 returns, respectively. The IRS’s inspector general said last year that his office “did not identify misconduct” in the audit selections. ADEYEMO CROSSES THE POND: Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo is in Europe this week with at least one tax-related issue on his agenda: the Inflation Reduction Act. “In Brussels, Deputy Secretary Adeyemo will meet with officials at the European Commission to discuss partnership with allies and partners to build reliable clean energy supply chains to support green economic transitions,” Treasury said in a statement. The Biden administration has been in talks with EU officials over a possible deal to allow minerals mined and processed in Europe to count toward sourcing requirements for U.S. tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act’s green energy and critical minerals provisions. But that might not be the only tax topic that comes up. While not mentioned in the Treasury release, the global minimum tax deal that the U.S. has signed on to along with more than 140 other countries is looming in the background. European officials are antsy about the lack of progress in the U.S. on implementing the agreement. Republicans are standing in the way of any congressional approval of its two central provisions — imposing a 15 percent minimum tax on multinational corporations and allowing countries to tax companies where they make sales, not just where they’re headquartered. With the deal sidelined in Congress, some European officials have made noises about revisiting digital services taxes — which would mostly hit U.S. companies — that were meant to be replaced by the global deal. Another option, of course, is for governments that ratify the agreement to wield a club it includes allowing them to tax corporations that don’t pay a minimum tax rate of 15 percent in their home countries. That threat seems to be what the Biden administration is counting on to eventually get things off the dime in Congress. "I think that over time as other countries adopt this minimum tax, and put in place penalties designed to encourage countries that are not part of it to adopt it, that the United States and members of Congress will see that it is sensible and appropriate for us to put it in place as well," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on CNBC in June.
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