Finance

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney traded barbs about tax policy and how they would control the budget deficit, with Romney telling Obama at one point that he might need to get a new accountant.

The New York State Society of CPAs has asked Congress to consider new legislation that would temporarily waive tax penalties for taxpayers who are forced to make early withdrawals from retirement accounts due to financial hardship caused by the economic crisis.

The Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation announced that Robert H. Attmore, chairman of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, will retire in June 2013.

While the outcome of the 2012 election is still up in the air, the nation's accountants are putting their money behind a candidate many of them hope will change Washington -- Republican Mitt Romney.

Several months ago, the Mitt Romney campaign made his 2010 return public, along with an estimate for 2011. I had no intention of reviewing it, but sometime in mid-August, I linked to the return from a news story about the $4.8 million capital loss carryover on his 2010 Schedule D.

In an election season where taxes spark debate among all political camps, much of the dialogue has been focused on corporate tax rates impacting U.S. businesses.

In January 1999, a trust set up by Mitt Romney for his children and grandchildren reaped a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc.

A new report from a Treasury watchdog revealed that federal agencies owe approximately $14 million in unpaid taxes.

A bill requiring federal agencies to place new controls on government charge cards and enforce more stringent penalties for violations by federal employees is on its way to President Obama for his signature, following final passage by Congress over the weekend.

Mitt Romney released his 2011 tax return this afternoon, which revealed that the Republic presidential candidate paid taxes of $1,935,708 on $13.7 million in income, mostly from investments, giving him an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing on offshore profit shifting and the U.S. tax code, examining in particular the practices of Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, while questioning an Ernst & Young tax partner who services HP.

Congress’s two tax-writing committees, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, held a joint hearing Thursday to discuss capital gains taxes and how they might be reformed.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law Thursday allowing CPAs from outside California to practice across state lines without needing additional licenses.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid predicted that Congress will reach a deal after the Nov. 6 election to avert hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff” set to begin in January.

Eleven years ago, eliminating income taxes for low-income Americans was an applause line for a Republican president. Mitt Romney in 2012 sees the number of people paying nothing as a political problem.

Politicians and policy makers always seem to be talking about “broadening the tax base” and “eliminating tax loopholes,” but rarely do we hear specifics.

U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, have called on New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to halt all exploratory efforts involving the activities of several businesses and nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations.

With the presidential candidates arguing over lowering taxes and cutting spending, the Congressional Research Service has weighed in with a historical analysis that claims that reducing tax rates for the highest-income taxpayers does not promote growth.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday that it has signed a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom to implement information reporting and withholding tax provisions under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, allowing the two governments to share information about taxpayers from the U.S. and U.K.

Mitt Romney says he can lower income tax rates by 20 percent without costing the U.S. government revenue and without making the middle class carry a bigger share of the tax load.