Finance

Americans who have been evading taxes through Swiss bank accounts are being advised by tax lawyers to come forward before the Justice Department steps up its own pursuit in response to Senate critics.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., has released his long-awaited draft legislation on tax reform, to mixed reviews.

Credit Suisse Group AG helped American customers hide as much as $10 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service, more than double the amount previously known, according to a U.S. Senate committee report.

The American Institute of CPAs has sent a letter outlining a set of legislative proposals to the leaders of Congress’s two main tax committees, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, recommending ways to simplify the tax laws and make them fairer.

A blue ribbon panel of public policy experts has released a set of recommendations to address the problem of underfunded public pensions.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., sent a letter Monday to the Internal Revenue Service’s new commissioner, John Koskinen, demanding he turn over documents related to last year’s scandal involving IRS scrutiny of tax-exempt applications or else he would be forced to “compel them.”

Group-of-20 nations agreed to implement a global standard for automatically exchanging information between tax authorities by the end of 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released a final package of regulations Thursday to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and amend the regulations to align them with existing tax rules.

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold a hearing next week on a crackdown on offshore tax evasion that has stalled as prosecutors conduct criminal probes of 14 banks, including Credit Suisse Group AG.

The top Republican tax writer in Congress will release a draft plan to revamp the U.S. tax code amid political odds that are stacked against him.

Participants in the Internal Revenue Service’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program were more likely to disclose foreign bank accounts from Switzerland than other countries, according to a new government report.

Senators Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced bipartisan legislation to reinstate a tax incentive for the production of domestic biodiesel fuel.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has been confirmed as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, succeeding Max Baucus, D-Mont., who was confirmed last week as Ambassador to China.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has launched GASB Outlook, a quarterly electronic newsletter designed to keep stakeholders informed about key GASB projects and activities.

Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, has reintroduced legislation to provide tax exemptions to American athletes who win medals in the Olympics.

A group of Republican senators has introduced legislation to prevent the Internal Revenue Service from finalizing for one year proposed regulations governing how much political activity tax-exempt 501(c)4 social welfare organizations can legitimately conduct.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations Monday implementing the employer shared responsibility provisions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as the employer mandate, providing additional time to small and large businesses.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., was confirmed Thursday as U.S. Ambassador to China, which could prolong an investigation of the Internal Revenue Service’s handling of tax-exempt applications, along with tax reform efforts.

Businesses often take a risk in the development of new products and processes.

The Internal Revenue Service's new commissioner, John Koskinen, told a congressional hearing Wednesday that the IRS has received an unprecedented number of comments on its proposed regulations for 501(c)4 tax-exempt groups and they will not be finalized anytime soon.