Tax Breaks: The Old Tax Ideas Are New Again Edition

The article reports coverage from the National Association of Tax Professionals’ 2026 Taxposium conference, held in Cleveland, where the author spoke twice on legal developments in tax and on changes at the IRS with former IRS Communications Chief Terry Lemons. The trip involved a roughly 800-mile round drive, with stops that included the world’s largest coffee pot in Bedford, Pennsylvania, and the world’s largest quarter in Everett, Pennsylvania. It highlights a federal IRS update: starting July 1, 2026, optional standard mileage rates will rise to 76 cents per mile for business use and 23.5 cents per mile for qualifying medical and moving purposes, while the charitable rate remains at 14 cents. These rates are prospective, creating two mileage rate sets for 2026. The piece then draws historical parallels between taxes on chain stores and modern proposals to tax AI.