Finance

Swiss banks will reach final settlements over tax disputes with the U.S. by 2015, according to Patrick Odier, chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association.

Seeing signs of movement on changing the Tax Code

The Swiss government is urging banks to cooperate with a new program it has set up with U.S. authorities, even though it will require significant financial penalties and information sharing from banks that aided secret account holders.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, will be treated as married for federal tax purposes.

Switzerland is paving the way for its banks to settle a dispute with the U.S. over tax evasion, approving a plan after years of diplomatic wrangling.

A pair of Democratic lawmakers in Congress announced they are introducing legislation to curb gun violence by increasing federal taxes on firearms and ammunition.

Senator Ben Cardin, D-Md., a member of the Senate Finance Committee, has written to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, urging them to quickly resolve and clarify the tax implications for legally married same-sex couples and those in civil unions.

Democratic U.S. Representative Chris Van Hollen sued the Internal Revenue Service to force the agency to adopt regulations that mirror federal law on determining whether a group should be given tax-exempt status.

The ranking Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee ranking member, Sander Levin, D-Mich., released new information Tuesday from the Internal Revenue Service to provide further evidence that progressive groups were singled out for scrutiny as were conservative groups.

The leaders of Congress’s two main tax committees met with taxpayers and businesses in Silicon Valley on Tuesday to elicit feedback on various tax reform proposals.

Ahead of an expected showdown in Congress over budget and tax issues after lawmakers return from their August recess, groups in 16 states are holding 28 events this week to demand that Congress end corporate tax breaks to avoid deeper cuts to spending programs.

The American Institute of CPAs has written to the heads of Congress’s main tax-writing committee expressing its opposition to a proposed limitation on the use of the cash method of accounting for partnerships, S corporations, personal service corporations and farmers.

House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee chairman Charles Boustany, R-La., has asked the Government Accountability Office to assess how the Internal Revenue Service examines tax-exempt organizations in the aftermath of recent scandals.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the final regulations for how it will release tax return information to the Department of Health and Human Services to assess a taxpayer’s eligibility for help in buying health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

House Small Business Committee chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service expressing his concerns about the thousands of notices that the IRS is sending to small businesses telling them they may have underreported their income.

A pair of House Republican lawmakers, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., and House Oversight Subcommittee chairman Charles Boustany Jr., M.D., R-La., have written to Internal Revenue Service principal deputy commissioner Daniel Werfel calling on him to immediately stop the IRS from continuing to target Tea Party applications based on name alone, but Democrats are disputing the charges.

Most state and local governments have achieved clean audit opinions, but a new poll of state finance officials found that implementing the Affordable Care Act and funding the pension costs of current and retired employees are among their biggest ongoing challenges.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing dozens of tax-exempt bond-financed jails, particularly in border states, and suggesting in some cases that, if the jails hold significant amounts of federal inmates, the bonds are no longer tax-exempt and are instead taxable private-activity bonds, sources said Thursday.

Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules.

Among the many tax reform issues to be resolved in the months ahead is whether or not to produce a comprehensive tax reform bill or simply one limited to corporate reform.