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President Donald Trump's tax-and-spending legislation was passed by the Senate on Tuesday, with a 50-50 deadlock decided with a tiebreaking vote from Vice President JD Vance, enabling the extension of trillions in tax cuts from Mr. Trump's first term and new measures like eliminating income taxes on tips. The bill proposes cuts of about $1tn to Medicaid and other health programs, potentially leaving nearly 12m people without healthcare coverage. It also raises the debt ceiling by $5tn. "There will be a day that conservatives will rue the fact that some of them actually voted for this," remarked Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). The legislation must now pass the House, where it faces opposition. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters about an hour after the Senate bill’s passage Tuesday that he wouldn’t vote to move the president’s tax bill out of the House Rules Committee, adding: “Our bill has been completely changed - from the IRA credits to the deficit. This bill’s a nonstarter. We want to do this, but this bill doesn’t do what the president wants it to do." Should House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) fail to get enough members to back it, the House and Senate will have to confer to reconcile the differences, likely going past Mr. Trump's deadline of July 4th to pass the bill.

 

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AICPA has commended the Senate for passing the Reconciliation Bill, expressing strong support for its tax provisions. It said: “We appreciate the challenges that come with drafting a budget reconciliation bill that permanently extends tax provisions,” such as the removal of the limit on pass-through businesses' state and local tax (SALT) deductions, the expansion of section 529 accounts, and an increase in the filing threshold for Forms 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC. AICPA president & chief executive Mark Koziel emphasized the importance of the SALT deduction for millions of businesses, saying: “We are grateful to members of Congress who supported millions of businesses' ability to retain this critical deduction.”

 

CPA Practice Advisor

Top technology leaders at U.S. companies are getting bigger paychecks as artificial intelligence expands the scope of their leadership and responsibilities. The median pay for chief technology officers rose 30.81% in 2024 from the previous year, to approximately $2.4m, according to C-Suite Comp, an executive and board pay analytics firm. A separate report from Heller Search Associates found that base compensation for chief information officers is rising by 20%-30%. “The reason total compensation is rising is because fear, uncertainty, doubt and desperation has entered the board and executive suite,” said chief executive Martha Heller. “They finally, with a push in AI, understand that this CIO role is important.” “Technology leaders have wised up,” said Alyse Egol, a senior client partner of Korn Ferry’s digital, technology and security officers practice. “They’re saying, ‘My value is above and beyond just keeping the machine running.’”

 

Wall Street Journal

Amazon is rapidly expanding its use of robotics, and now has over a million robots operating in its warehouses, nearly matching the number of human workers. The company passed the milestone with the delivery of a unit to a fulfilment facility in Japan. Around 75% of Amazon deliveries involve robotic assistance, which the company says improves safety and reduces repetitive tasks for employees. Amazon is also increasing automation efficiency with artificial intelligence, with the release of a new generative AI model called DeepFleet. The company says the model can coordinate the robots’ routes within the company’s warehouses more efficiently, and will help increase the speed of its robotic fleet by 10%. 

 

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Google is to purchase power from a planned fusion power plant in the 2030s in only the second electricity offtake deal to be signed in the nascent fusion energy sector. The Alphabet-owned company has signed what it called the technology's first direct corporate power purchase agreement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a company that spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018. “It’s a pretty big signal to the market that fusion’s coming. It’s desirable, and that people are gonna work together to make it happen,” CFS co-founder and chief executive Bob Mumgaard said about the deal.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

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In the first half of 2025, the number of global activist campaigns fell to 129, a 12% decrease from 147 in the same period last year, as economic and geopolitical uncertainties made investors more cautious. Jim Rossman, global head of shareholder advisory at Barclays, said: "The environment was shaped by mixed economic signals, fears about wars and geopolitical tensions." Despite the decline in campaigns, activist investors secured 86 board seats, a 16% increase, and settlements rose by 32% to 37. Most activity remained focused in the U.S., with 60 campaigns, while Europe saw 24 launched - a 17% decline. Japan saw 37 campaigns compared to 51 a year ago.

 

Reuters

Lululemon has filed a lawsuit against Costco, claiming the retailer is selling unauthorized knockoffs of its athleisure clothing, including pants priced at $128, while Costco's Kirkland brand offers similar items for around $8. The Vancouver-based company argues that Costco's actions have unlawfully exploited its brand reputation and misled consumers into thinking these products are authentic. Lululemon said:  “one of the purposes of selling ‘dupes' is to confuse consumers . . . into believing that the ‘dupes' are (Lululemon's) authentic products when they are not”. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and an injunction to stop Costco from selling these items. Lululemon has previously taken legal action against other brands, including Peloton, and is currently facing challenges in the market. Shares are down 37% this year.

 

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EY breached independence rules for its audits of Shell in the U.S. and in the U.K., the energy major has revealed, putting the Big Four firm in regulators’ crosshairs again. Shell said that it will today file an amendment to its filed Form 20-Fs - documentation required by the SEC for non-U.S. companies which have securities listed on U.S. stock exchanges - for the two years, with new U.S. audit opinions issued by EY. Shell’s financial statements remain unchanged. EY earned $66m from work for Shell in 2024, according to the company’s annual report.

 

Financial Times

Upstream

S&P Global has released its Manufacturing PMI for June, showing a 0.9 point increase from May to 52.9, beating Wall Street's expectations for an unchanged reading, and remaining above the 50-mark separating expansion from contraction. Chris Williamson, chief economist at S&P Global, said: "The increase in orders from both domestic and overseas customers directly drove higher workloads and production recovery." He added, however, that "This may be due to customers placing advance inventory orders to hedge against tariff-driven price increases . . . Price pressures have already accumulated, and growth could slow in the second half of the year." Separately, the Institute for Supply Management's own Manufacturing PMI for last month remained in contractionary territory, at 49, inching up half a point from May. The production index jumped to 50.3 in June from 45.4, the new orders index fell to 46.4, and the employment index declined to 45.

 

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U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in May, a sign that the American labor market remains resilient in the face of high borrowing costs and uncertainty over U.S. economic policy. In its latest JOLTS report, the Labor Department said that employers posted 7.8m vacancies in May, up from 7.4m in April, beating all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The number of layoffs fell by 188,000 in May, bringing the layoff rate down to 1%. Meanwhile, hiring declined, led by drops in health care and manufacturing. The number of vacancies per unemployed worker rose to 1.1, while the quits rate stood at 2.1%, well below the average rate of the past five years. 

 

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The U.S. and G7 nations have reached an agreement to prevent a global tax war by establishing a "side-by-side" system that exempts U.S. companies from certain aspects of an existing global tax framework. As part of this deal, U.S. officials removed Section 899, known as the "revenge tax," which would have raised taxes on U.S. income for non-U.S.-based businesses. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized that the removal of this section was "crucial to this overall understanding" and essential for fostering a stable environment for discussions on global corporate taxation. The G7 also aims to address the taxation of the digital economy while preserving tax sovereignty for all countries.

 

CPA Practice Advisor

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI have announced an arrest and indictments related to North Korea's "IT worker" program, which allowed North Koreans to secure remote IT jobs at over 100 U.S. companies. The North Koreans allegedly stole around $900,000 in cryptocurrency from a Georgia-based firm and sensitive data from a California defence contractor. Zhenxing “Danny” Wang and Kejia Wang, both U.S. citizens, were indicted as part of the operation, according to the DOJ. Zhenxing Wang was arrested in New Jersey, while Kejia Wang remains free. The two men, along with four other unnamed U.S. “facilitators,” assisted the North Koreans by procuring and operating laptops used by the overseas workers, created financial accounts to receive money earned by the workers to be sent back to North Korea, and created shell companies to make the workers appear more authentic, Reuters reports.

 

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Reuters

President Donald Trump has launched a new line of fragrances, including a cologne for men and a perfume for women, priced at $249 per bottle. He announced the products on his Truth Social account, writing: “Trump Fragrances are here. They’re called ‘Victory 45-47’ because they’re all about Winning, Strength, and Success - For men and women." The colognes come in golden statuettes of the president dressed in a business suit with his distinctive signature at the bottom. They are being sold by a company called 45Footwear LLC via Mr Trump’s name, image and likeness partnership with CIC Ventures LLC. The fragrances are the latest in a series of products associated with Mr Trump, who has faced scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest as he promotes merchandise while in office.

 

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