Finance

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has proposed new financial reporting standards for state and local governments to help them account for government combinations such as mergers, acquisitions and transfers of operations, along with disposals such as sales and transfers of government operations.

A congressional subcommittee plans to hold a hearing next Thursday on the 2012 tax return filing season, with one of the main topics to be the recent reports of tax refund delays.

The Senate failed to pass an amendment that would have extended a set of expiring tax credits for wind energy, biofuels, energy efficient homes and other tax breaks.

An amendment to a highway transportation bill that would have extended expired tax credits such as the Research and Experimentation Credit in exchange for freezing the salaries of federal employees for another year has gone down to defeat in the Senate.

Corporate audit giant Ernst & Young operates a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., that has been hired in recent years by several corporations that were at the same time E&Y audit clients, prompting two senior lawmakers to demand closer regulatory scrutiny.

The world's largest accounting and auditing firms, known as the Big Four, have been pumping more money than ever before into U.S. lobbying and political campaigns as they confront new challenges from their regulator and Congress.

The Senate has unanimously approved a provision to a highway transportation bill that would revoke the passports of people with seriously delinquent tax debts.

The economy continued to gain jobs last month, with another 227,000 added in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, although the unemployment rate remained unchanged from January, at 8.3 percent.

The Senate adopted an amendment to a larger highway transportation bill on Thursday aimed at cracking down on foreign tax havens.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing to consider changing the tax treatment of closely held businesses in the context of overall tax reform efforts.

President Obama pressed for business tax reform in a speech before a group of business executives.

Swiss lawmakers have passed a tax proposal seen as key to settling a U.S. probe into Swiss banks with hidden offshore accounts.

The Internal Revenue Service is facing renewed pressure over its reluctance to grant tax-exempt status to political fundraising and advocacy organizations, particularly Tea Party-affiliated groups.

On April 1, the tax rate for U.S. corporations will go from second highest to the highest tax rate in the world. That’s when Japan will lower its rate by five points from its current 39.5 percent.

Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., has proposed closing a tax loophole that would give Facebook an estimated $3 billion tax break on stock options for CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In a rare sign of bipartisanship, Congressional Republicans and Democrats are moving forward with a group of jobs bills with bipartisan support, aimed at improving capital formation for small businesses and spurring the growth of startups.

The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs conducted a two-week-long enforcement sweep of tax preparers across the city and issued violations to one out of every three preparers it inspected, mainly for violating laws governing refund anticipation loans and disclosure of their true qualifications and fees.

Now that the payroll tax cut extension is safely out of the way, the latest tax legislation gambit in Congress appears to be a tongue-in-cheek effort to provide an annual $250 tax deduction for people with mustaches.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is allowing some extensions and exemptions to its new requirements that all FineCEN reports be filed electronically starting July 1, 2012, while pushing back the requirement for mandatory e-filing of FBAR reports until June 30, 2013.

A Silicon Valley-based CPA is warning taxpayers and their accountants to begin planning for the tax increases that are set to take effect next year unless the current tax rates are extended by Congress and President Obama.