OB3—no, it’s not the name of the newest Star Wars droid sidekick (we’ll never forget you, R4). Also abbreviated as OBBBA, it’s an important acronym to know, a shorthand for the “one big, beautiful bill” that Republican lawmakers passed this summer.

The massive tax legislation was chock full of provisions potentially impacting your organization’s tax planning and liabilities. It extended some of the major pieces of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), such as 100% bonus depreciation on property and equipment investments. But it also included plenty of new provisions, including the elimination of tax on tips and overtime.

Untangling such a large and consequential piece of legislation may feel, well, taxing. CFO Brew asked tax experts to break down the biggest pieces of the complex bill and advise what companies should prioritize heading into next year and beyond.

Awaiting further instructions. Beyond any specific provision, companies are wondering how to plan while tax guidance still trickles in from the IRS, according to Jennifer Acuña, who co-leads the federal legislative and regulatory services group of KPMG’s Washington national tax practice.

President Donald Trump signed OB3 into law on July 4, but the legislation was not in its final form. It was then up to the IRS to flesh out the nitty-gritty through regulatory guidance, Acuña noted. Speaking with CFO Brew in early November, Acuña said there wasn’t “a ton of regulatory guidance [or] specifics” on the legislation at that point.

“The statute is intended to be the bones of the structure,” she explained. “But those really detailed, entity-by-entity, company-by-company specific, unique facts…are usually addressed in regulatory and subregulatory guidance.”

KPMG recommends companies assess the potential impact of the new provisions through modeling, “so that you can ask for those specific clarifications to be included in the [guidance] package that is released,” Acuña said.

“That should be priority number one,” she continued. “That is the difference between having to make an assumption, or maybe not taking a position that is as advantageous as it could have been.”

Keep reading.—AZ

The percentage of women in the CFO role dropped globally last year, after several years of slow but steady growth, according to a recent MSCI survey on women in board roles and beyond. Last year’s dip was the first decline noted since 2020.

According to a report from MSCI, an investment research company, in 2023, 19.8% of US CFOs in MSCI’s World Index were women, but that number dropped to 19% as of October 2024. For companies in MSCI’s Emerging Markets Index, the decline in female CFOs was more notable, decreasing from 21.3% in 2023 to 19.4% in 2024.

“The past several years had seen significant numbers of women appointed to the role of CFO at EM [emerging markets] companies, outstripping an increase among DM [developing markets] peers,” the report said. But in 2024, that trend reversed, “though it remains to be seen whether this was an anomaly or the start of a deeper shift.”

Keep reading.—JK

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 4.4%. That’s the unemployment rate for September, a nearly four-year high, according to recently released BLS data. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble. From our vantage point, we see something very different.”—Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia (CNBC)

Read: The sons of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are reportedly profiting off the AI projects their father is championing as a White House official. (New York Times)

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.