Finance

Court rulings explore when IRS regulations are due deference.

Three bills before Congress could offer small businesses some tax help.

The House and Senate passed a highway bill Friday that contains provisions to prevent a doubling of the interest rates for subsidized Stafford student loans.

Fitch Ratings said that two recently released pension accounting and financial reporting standards from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board are generally positive for state and local governments.

Well, now we know the answer. The individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which the Administration has variously said was a both a tax and not a tax, is, in fact, a tax. That’s what the Supreme Court has called it, as a reason for finding it constitutional.

Congressional Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have introduced a pair of bills to extend the production tax credit for wind energy manufacturers through the end of 2013 and provide a 10 percent income tax credit for employer payroll increases this year.

The Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

On the eve of the Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, a new report on the Internal Revenue Service’s readiness to handle some specific aspects of the law has been released.

The Federal Housing Administration insured over $1.44 billion in mortgages for 6,327 borrowers with $77.6 million in federal tax debt who benefited from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of these borrowers, 3,815 individuals claimed and received $27.4 million of First-Time Homebuyer Credits from the Recovery Act.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has a novel idea. Instead of allowing $500 billion of cuts in the defense budget to go forward as part of last year’s deficit reduction deal, he wants to use money saved from closing tax loopholes.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board voted Monday to approve two new standards to improve the accounting and financial reporting of public employee pensions by state and local governments.

Leaders of the Senate and House committees charged with tax policy plan to hold a rare joint hearing next Thursday on tax reform and the tax treatment of capital gains.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it reached agreements with both Switzerland and Japan to cooperate on a framework for sharing financial information on bank accounts under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

A group of Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have introduced a bill to extend 100 percent bonus depreciation through 2012 to encourage capital investments and job growth.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Accountant James L. Kroeker will leave his post in July to enter the private sector.

Former Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., told attendees at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners conference that the financial reform law is essential, even though he wishes his name were not attached to it.

Former Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., ushered the landmark financial reform legislation through the Senate in 2010 before retiring from his 30-year distinguished career in that chamber. He is now chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America.

A group of 11 senators have written to the Internal Revenue Service asking for information about requests for confidential donor information from organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

The American Institute of CPAs is asking Congress to make permanent changes in the estate tax as soon as possible to provide certainty to taxpayers before the current rates and rules expire at the end of the year.

The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing Tuesday to examine the impact of tax reform on U.S. energy policy.