Labor Unions, AI Bills, and the Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Programs
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Tax Policy/News:
May 22: IRS announces extension of Free File program through 2029
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has extended its Free File program through October 2029 in collaboration with Free File Inc., ensuring the continuation of free tax preparation software via a public-private partnership.
This extension marks a continuation of the service that allows eligible taxpayers to access free online tax preparation and filing tools from various software companies through IRS.gov.
As of May 11, the program processed about 2.9 million returns, reflecting a 7.3% increase from the previous year. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel highlighted the program's role in a successful filing season and its importance in the IRS's offerings to assist taxpayers.
The Free File service, now in its 22nd season, caters to taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income of $79,000 or less, and also offers Free File Fillable Forms for those earning more.
Additionally, this tax season saw the implementation of the Direct File pilot, allowing direct electronic filings to the IRS, and increased usage of services at VITA and TCE sites.
Economic News/Policy:
May 21: Labor unions call for repeal of Trump tax cuts
Major U.S. labor unions, including the United Auto Workers, AFL-CIO, and others, alongside numerous progressive groups, are advocating for the repeal of the Trump-era tax cuts, formally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).
They argue that the TCJA disproportionately benefited the wealthy by making deep cuts to corporate taxes and providing temporary reductions to individual and estate taxes, while eroding overall tax revenues.
As individual tax provisions are set to expire next year, these unions are pushing for a more progressive tax overhaul beyond just debating extensions.
The Congressional Research Service supports their stance, noting that the tax cuts largely favored higher-income individuals without significantly increasing workers' real wages.
Meanwhile, conservatives propose radical reforms such as a 23-percent national sales tax to replace the current tax code, aiming to eliminate the payroll tax and shift to a consumption-based system.
Technology:
May 25: Infinita Lab founder on AI, hardware limitations and the future of material science
Artificial intelligence (AI) is still grappling with its own technological adolescence, facing hardware limitations that stifle its full potential. Pradyumna (Prady) Gupta, Ph.D., founder of Infinita Lab, highlights the memory component as the major bottleneck in AI development, despite advances in graphic processing units that support trillion-parameter models.
The memory wall in computer architecture limits data processing speeds necessary for complex AI tasks. Despite these challenges, the industry is optimistic about future advancements, with companies like TSMC and Intel pushing towards sub-nanometer chip technology.
Meanwhile, Gupta's Infinita Lab is democratizing access to advanced testing resources for startups and engineers across the U.S., aiming to accelerate innovation.
Additionally, Gupta sees AI playing a transformative role in materials science, potentially revolutionizing R&D processes by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of experiment design and data analysis.
May 22: Schumer urges committee chairs to advance AI bills
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has intensified efforts to steer legislative action on regulating artificial intelligence (AI), convening committee chairs to build on a bipartisan AI working group's roadmap released last week.
The roadmap, developed with input from civil society, tech industry leaders, and researchers, sets out priorities for legislation to foster AI innovation while addressing risks like bias, deepfakes, and the need for transparency.
However, it does not advocate specific legislative proposals, which has drawn criticism from various advocacy groups seeking more decisive action.
This push comes amid rapid advancements in AI by major tech companies and recent movement by the Senate Rules Committee on three election-related AI bills, reflecting growing legislative engagement with AI issues.
Energy and Environmental Policy/News:
The U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, and Department of Energy have opened the application portal for the 2024 Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program, effective from today with a 30-day application period ending on June 27.
This program, established under the Inflation Reduction Act, enhances the energy investment credit by 10 or 20 percentage points for qualifying solar and wind projects under five megawatts that secure an environmental justice solar and wind capacity allocation.
Taxpayers who receive this allocation and commence operation of the facilities can claim the increased credit in the year the facility begins service.
Further details are available on the IRS website under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 section.
The U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, and Department of Energy announced the opening of the 48C Portal for a new round of the DOE Qualified Advanced Energy Project Credit Program, inviting applications from manufacturers of all sizes.
Applicants must submit concept papers by June 21 to be eligible for full application submission.
This initiative, part of a second allocation round announced in April, will distribute up to $6 billion in tax credits to enhance clean energy manufacturing, critical materials processing, and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in industrial settings.
The new round substantially increases funding from the $4 billion offered in Round 1, which saw requests totaling nearly $42 billion.
Unsuccessful Round 1 applicants are encouraged to reapply under the updated guidelines. Further details are available on the IRS website under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 section.
May 22: NASA and IBM Research Apply AI to Weather and Climate
NASA and IBM Research have collaborated to create a new artificial intelligence foundation model called Prithvi-weather-climate, designed to enhance weather and climate applications.
This model, trained on 40 years of data from NASA's MERRA-2 database, aims to improve storm tracking, forecasting, and climate analysis. As part of NASA's commitment to open science, the model and its code will be made publicly available through Hugging Face in 2024.
The model's development involved a workshop at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center with contributions from various research institutions and aims to support diverse scientific applications by enabling detailed analyses and forecasts of weather and climate phenomena.
This work aligns with NASA's broader strategy to utilize AI to expand the impact and application of its vast Earth observation data archives, promising significant advancements in environmental monitoring and public safety.
For Fun:
May 23: Massive cradle of baby stars revealed in new space telescope images
The European Space Agency's Euclid observatory, launched from Florida, has captured new detailed images of a vast cradle of baby stars known as Messier 78, located about 1,300 light-years away.
These images are part of the initial observations following the launch, serving as a precursor to Euclid's primary mission of exploring the dark universe.
Stationed 1 million miles from Earth, Euclid aims to spend the next few years studying billions of galaxies across more than one-third of the sky to gather insights into the elusive dark energy and dark matter that constitute most of the universe.
This initiative marks the beginning of a significant venture to map the cosmic structure, with potential to uncover new star-forming regions through its infrared capabilities.