Finance

A pair of lawmakers plan to introduce bipartisan legislation in the House that would provide permanent tax incentives to family farmers, ranchers and other land owners who choose not to develop their land and instead preserve their property for conservation.

A pair of congressional subcommittee chairmen are asking the head of the Internal Revenue Service about a recent report that the agency accidentally posted thousands of Social Security numbers on the Internet.

The Internal Revenue Service’s inspector general told Congress he’s “disturbed” that he didn’t receive until this month a July 2010 document that mentioned scrutiny of “progressive” nonprofit groups.

The American Center for Law and Justice, which has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 41 Tea Party and other conservative groups that claim to have been unlawfully targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, said Wednesday it is rejecting the government's offer for "expedited review" of applications for some conservative groups that have been waiting for years for a determination on their tax-exempt status, calling the offer “deeply flawed.”

A group of House Republicans whose committees have been investigating the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday they have found evidence of delays created by the IRS Chief Counsel office in the screening of applications for tax-exempt status by Tea Party groups.

The Internal Revenue Service told its employees and the union representing them Tuesday that it has taken various budget-related steps that will enable the IRS it to cancel the next planned unpaid furlough day for employees on Monday, July 22.

Nearly two-thirds of accounting professionals in a new poll believe the Affordable Care Act will make it less likely for businesses to hire new employees in the next year.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to members of Congress to support legislation that would block the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2010 proposal to change its definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to include appraisers of employee stock ownership plans.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is looking into findings from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that the confidential tax records of political donors or candidates have been inappropriately accessed or disclosed in several instances since 2006 and why the Justice Department has declined to prosecute the perpetrators.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., contended that the immigration reform bill approved by the Senate last month violates the Constitution because it contains revenue provisions that are supposed to originate in the House.

House Democrats are demanding answers from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration about its report on the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of tax-exempt groups, demanding to know why some newly uncovered documents were left out of the report.

The Treasury Department said Friday that due to overwhelming interest from countries around the world, it will extend by six months the start of the withholding and account due diligence requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, until July 1, 2014, to allow more time to complete agreements with foreign jurisdictions.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a formal notice that officially delays the employer shared responsibility provisions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as the employer mandate, for a year and postpones the information reporting requirements.

Unauthorized immigrants are already paying $10.6 billion a year in state and local taxes, according to a new analysis that estimates an additional $2 billion revenue increase for the 50 states and the District of Columbia if undocumented immigrants who currently in the U.S. are allowed to work legally.

China will for the first time give audit records for a Chinese company to U.S. authorities after regulators reached an agreement in May to allow each other access to companies’ documents.

The Internal Revenue Service budget would be cut by 24 percent under a House Republican proposal that would create new restrictions on the tax agency.

The House has approved a bill that prohibits the Public Company Accounting and Oversight Board from forcing public companies to automatically change or rotate their independent auditing firms.

The leaders of Congress’s two main tax-writing committees kicked off their national tax reform tour Monday with meetings at two businesses in the Twin Cities area.

The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations has grown in membership, revenue and clout since its inception in 1984 .

Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., has written a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew questioning regulations that would require U.S. banks and credit unions to collect and report information on nonresident aliens, urging him to cease enforcement of the Foreign Accounting Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, and stop negotiating intergovernmental agreements with other countries for FATCA enforcement.