The Latest

Financial Executives International, a 15,000-member trade group headquartered here, has compiled what it considers to be the top financial challenges for 2008.

The House has again passed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, an effort to help people whose homes have been foreclosed by canceling taxes on any mortgage debt they have been forgiven.

Sage Software has unveiled Peachtree Payment Solutions, a new service to assist small companies managing their businesses with Peachtree by Sage Accounting.

The House approved an amended version of a bill that delivers tax relief to members of the armed services, in addition to emergency volunteers.

The American Institute of CPAs received 24 marketing awards, mostly for its "Feed the Pig" campaign aimed at encouraging Americans to prepare better for long-term financial security.

The Internal Revenue Service has outlined new procedures under which informants could report violations of tax laws and possibly claim rewards based on the amount of additional tax, penalties and interest owed.

The House has passed a fix for the alternative minimum tax, voting 352-64 to keep up to 23 million taxpayers from falling prey to the AMT.

One of the names in my wife’s family tree, Orlinger, is a mystery, not to the family historian (me), but to those trying to transcribe it from barely legible writing. One effort came up with the name transcribed as Aslinger.

The Treasury Department has issued a report on improving the competitiveness of the U.S. business tax system, offering three alternative approaches designed to cut the corporate tax rate in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Joseph P. Collins, a partner with the law firm Mayer Brown, with aiding and abetting fraud at his client Refco. He is the fourth person accused in the case.