Finance

The airline industry and one of its prominent allies are gearing up to fight a possible push in the U.S. Congress to tax baggage fees and other air-travel charges as a way to generate additional federal revenue.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board approved a 2014 budget of $258.4 million, and a 2013-2017 strategic plan that includes a greater focus on accounting firms' burgeoning consulting practices.

Deborah Barrett, a 57-year-old accounting manager in Newport, R.I., is one of an estimated 1.3 million unemployed workers who will lose their unemployment benefits on December 28 because Congress failed to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.

A group of female House Democrats is urging Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, to allow a vote on extending federal unemployment insurance to help 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers facing the expiration of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program on December 28.

The Senate has voted to confirm John Koskinen as the next Internal Revenue Service commissioner, succeeding acting commissioner Daniel Werfel, who was brought in to help reform the beleaguered tax agency.

President Obama has nominated Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., as the next ambassador to China, potentially setting back efforts at comprehensive tax reform.

The U.S. has signed six more intergovernmental agreements with a half dozen jurisdictions, including several traditional offshore tax havens, to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

Although federal law prohibits agencies from contracting with businesses that have unpaid federal tax liabilities, more than 1,100 vendors doing business with the IRS owe a combined $589 million in federal tax debt.

As 2013 recedes in the rearview mirror, it is understandable that tax professionals look to the road ahead regarding taxes and Washington.

John Koskinen, a 74-year-old multimillionaire with a resume full of accomplishments, is about to get the thankless career-capping job of running the IRS after the Senate Finance Committee approved his nomination Friday.

The House passed the first bipartisan U.S. budget in four years yesterday, clearing the way for final Senate passage next week to ease $63 billion in spending cuts and avert another government shutdown.

President Barack Obama’s nominee to run the Internal Revenue Service said it’s not a high priority to create tax returns that already include information that taxpayers would check, complete and send to the agency.

John Koskinen, President Barack Obama’s nominee to run the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, said at a Senate panel’s confirmation hearing that he would work to restore the public’s trust in the tax agency.

Even though the IRS has made improvements in information security, there are still weak spots in its in system access controls, audit trails, and remediation of security flaws, according to a new report.

The House Small Business Committee held a hearing to determine whether businesses are considered single or multiple entities under the health care reform law, and the compliance ramification for multi-owner business ownership.

The Internal Revenue Service has taken steps to improve its management controls for technology that will help it implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, to improve U.S. tax compliance involving foreign financial assets and offshore accounts, according to a new report, but more work needs to be done.

The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing next Tuesday to consider the nomination of John Koskinen as the next Internal Revenue Service commissioner as the agency seeks to emerge from a series of recent scandals that have prompted the departures of a number of high-ranking officials.

On top of the other problems associated with the troubled rollout of the federal government’s online health insurance exchange, the Internal Revenue Service is now being urged to strengthen the security and anti-fraud protections for the tax credits it will be providing to help taxpayers afford the cost of the insurance premiums.

The U.S. Supreme Court stayed out of the multibillion-dollar fight over Internet sales taxes, leaving intact a New York law that forces Amazon.com Inc. to collect money from customers in that state.

The U.S. Treasury Department has signed intergovernmental agreements with the Cayman Islands and Costa Rica in an effort to combat offshore tax evasion as part of the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.