A dozen U.S. states are challenging President Donald Trump’s “immense and ever-changing” global tariffs in court, alleging he illegally bypassed Congress by issuing duties under an emergency economic law.

The suit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan, argues that Congress didn’t grant Trump the necessary authority to impose the tariffs and that national trade policy “now hinges on the president’s whims rather than the sound exercise of his lawful authority.”

Trump “has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,” the group, which includes New York, Illinois and Arizona, said in the complaint.

A spokesman for the White House criticized Democratic officials who filed the complaint for “prioritizing a witch hunt against President Trump over protecting the safety and wellbeing of their constituents.”

“The Trump Administration remains committed to using its full legal authority to confront the distinct national emergencies our country is currently facing — both the scourge of illegal migration and fentanyl flows across our border and the exploding annual U.S. goods trade deficit,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.

The suit follows a handful of others — filed by California, small businesses and members of the Blackfeet Nation tribe in Montana — that all make similar claims. It seeks a court order halting the tariffs, including the worldwide levies Trump paused on April 9. The states allege the tariffs amount to a massive tax on American consumers.

“The president does not have the power to raise taxes on a whim, but that’s exactly what President Trump has been doing with these tariffs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Donald Trump promised that he would lower prices and ease the cost of living, but these illegal tariffs will have the exact opposite effect on American families.”

The complaint takes aim at Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the president invoked for “the most damaging of his tariffs,” according to the suit. 

The states argue the law was passed five decades ago to prevent presidents from abusing emergency powers, and that it can only be invoked to respond to an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” Trade deficits and other issues cited by Trump don’t meet that standard, the states allege.

“The statutory requirement of an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ is not met by the president’s declaration of emergency accompanying the Worldwide Tariff Order,” the states said in the complaint. “As the Worldwide Tariff Order acknowledges, ‘annual U.S. goods trade deficits’ are ‘persistent’; thus, by definition, they are not ‘unusual and extraordinary.'”

The suit comes a day after Trump turned down his tariff rhetoric against China, the world’s second-biggest economy. Global markets are still on edge, however, given how frequently Trump has changed course on the matter.

The other states in the suit are Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut, New Mexico, Vermont, Nevada, Delaware, Minnesota and Maine.

The case is State of Oregon v. Trump, 1:25-cv-00077, US Court of International Trade (New York).

The April 15 tax filing deadline in the United States has passed. For many taxpayers, this marks a moment of relief. However, for accounting professionals, it should mark the beginning of something else: analysis, review and developing long-term improvement strategies. 

In my work with small and medium-sized businesses in Brazil — a country known for having one of the most complex tax systems in the world — I’ve learned that meeting deadlines is just one part of the process.  The real value lies in what comes next: understanding mistakes, identifying inefficiencies and seizing opportunities to improve compliance for the following year. 

This perspective is just as relevant in the U.S. According to the QuickBooks Small Business Index 2025, small businesses are under growing financial pressure: 55% of business owners reported charging more than 25% of their monthly expenses to credit cards, often without a well-structured cash flow plan. Rising interest rates have also led to an average increase of $600 per year in financing costs, reducing available hiring, technology or marketing resources. 

These financial vulnerabilities also surface in operational issues. During the 2025 tax season, users reported navigation problems on the IRS website, including difficulty locating the login button, which had been moved from its traditional top-right position. While this may seem minor, such usability issues on a critical system can contribute to stress, delays and unintentional filing errors. 

The key question is: How many technical, operational or fiscal failures could be prevented with a more strategic and preventive approach? 

My professional experience has shown that strategically reviewing financial and tax processes allows businesses to correct errors, strengthen internal controls, reduce risk and improve fiscal efficiency. 

This doesn’t require just technical knowledge. It demands a broad vision built on real-world experience, especially working closely with small companies operating under limited resources and high pressure. 

The professionals who can bridge execution with strategic thinking are becoming increasingly valuable. 

Perhaps most importantly, this approach is not exclusive to any country. Whether you’re in Brazil or the United States, what truly matters is not just filing a return but ensuring it reflects a stronger, more efficient and more sustainable business in the year ahead.

Big Four firm KPMG announced that it has built several new AI agents into its global smart audit platform Clara, with plans to develop more in the future. 

While the precise definition can vary depending on who is asked, very broadly, an AI agent is a software that is capable of at least some degree of autonomy to make decisions and interact with tools outside itself in order to achieve some sort of goal — whether booking a flight, sending a bill or buying a gift — without constant human guidance. Agents are not necessarily new, but the rise of generative AI has made them much easier to make and use, as doing so no longer requires specialized coding skills. 

The AI agents deployed in this release will support standardizing and automating various aspects of the audit process and include substantive procedures such as expense vouching, search for unrecorded liabilities and accrued expenses. Overall, they are intended to handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as data analysis and document review; provide auditors with insights and recommendations based on data analysis, helping them make informed decisions and improve audit quality; and allow auditors to dedicate more time to high-risk areas and sector-specific challenges. 

KPMG plans to deploy additional AI agents over the next 12 months, which will be integrated into controls testing procedures, financial statement analysis and more. “We’re continuing to build out our AI capabilities with increasingly sophisticated agents in KPMG Clara to enable our auditors to more effectively respond to risks and deliver deeper audit insights,” said Scott Flynn, KPMG US’s vice chair of audit. “As we accelerate our adoption of this innovative technology and deploy new capabilities, we are maintaining a high level of professional skepticism and upskilling our professionals to drive trust in the capital markets.”

These upgrades coincide with the release of a new Financial Report Analyzer (FRA) AI engine, which provides AI-generated output to enable auditors in completing required disclosure checklists and mark the next phase of our accelerated effort to deliver an AI-enabled, people-powered audit experience. 

The announcement comes shortly after KPMG, along with other Big Four firms, announced deals with Google Cloud and its Agentspace platform, which will help clients build integrated and scalable AI platforms to enhance decision-making and effectively manage AI agents. These solutions will leverage Agentspace, Vertex AI Agent Builder, and Agent Development Kit. KPMG will also work with Google Cloud to develop new AI capabilities and systems for joint clients through Google Cloud’s Agent2Agent (A2A) interoperability protocol. The partnership will affect many parts of KPMG as a whole, but the firm noted the impact it will have on its banking clients and its new law practice.