Costs associated with AI use are becoming dizzying for companies. Tokenmaxxing (equating higher AI usage with productivity, according to IT Brew), duplicative processes, and the sheer velocity with which AI has grown in the last few years has created what procurement software platform Tropic’s CFO Russell Lester called an “AI tax.”

“You’ve got software companies trying to transform into becoming AI businesses in varying degrees, whether it’s AI native or AI wrapper or some type of agentic approach,” Lester said. “Many of them are bolting on those capabilities in their pricing model, and others are being a little more savvy than that, but one way or the other, it is disrupting and showing up in software purchases and renewals.”

“The new world for a CFO to navigate is how to figure out how to budget for all of this, and how do you forecast for something that’s changing weekly?” Lester said.

In this new world, Lester said finance heads must be dogged in leading and tracking AI deployment across corporate divisions, not just on their teams.“CFOs need to lead the charge in standing up discipline to memorialize learnings and insights, and foundational layers of how we use AI at the corporate level,” he added.

The questions to ask when you’re trying to cut AI tool spending.—DL

This year, Congress voted to slash the IRS’s budget for fiscal 2026 by 9%, funding it at 40% of 2010’s level when adjusted for inflation. It also cut about two-thirds of the remaining money the Inflation Reduction Act had allotted to the IRS for technology upgrades.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives also passed no fewer than 13 bills dealing with tax administration. Some of them, such as the Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act and the Barcode Efficiency Act, aim to make the IRS more efficient and easier for taxpayers to deal with.

Service oriented. But the potential law that finance professionals want to keep an eye on is the Taxpayer Assistance and Service (TAS) Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate by finance committee chair and Idaho Republican Mike Crapo and ranking member Ron Wyden, Democrat from Oregon. The sweeping piece of legislation includes 68 provisions that would mandate improvements in IRS service.

On the list: digitizing tax returns, updating the “Where’s My Refund?” function on the IRS’s website so taxpayers can know when refunds are arriving and what to do if they’re delayed, showing taxpayers wait times to talk to an agent, and introducing a callback option if taxpayer calls aren’t answered within five minutes.

Finance pros should follow the fate of one particular IRS reform bill.—CV

The World Cup kicked off on Thursday. For the next month, billions of people will rearrange their sleep schedules, argue with referees on social media, and explain the offside rule to their confused American friends. FIFA, meanwhile, will be focused on a different scoreboard.

The organization expects this year’s tournament—an event it has modestly described as “104 Super Bowls in a month”—to generate roughly $13 billion in revenue, 70% more than the previous World Cup in 2022.

Here’s how the math is mathing:

• Sponsorship revenue is projected to jump more than 55% from 2022
• Ticket revenue is expected to more than triple to $3 billion
• The addition of 40 extra matches is expected to lift global TV revenue to $4.3 billion from $3.4 billion

One trophy, many winners. FIFA won’t be the only one cashing in. A whole roster of public companies is hoping the tournament shows up in their next earnings call.

Why one beermaker is rooting for Brazil, according to Brew Markets.—SY