Finance

With only two weeks to go before a November 23 deadline, the congressional “supercommittee” of 12 that has been negotiating over cutting the budget deficit is now considering some far-reaching tax reform proposals.

The number of claims for the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit, which was included in the health care reform law as a way to help small businesses provide health insurance for their employees, has been much lower than anticipated, according to a new government report.

The unemployment rate dipped one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.0 percent as employers added 80,000 jobs in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Commissioner Doug Shulman has presided over the continued reorganization and modernization of the Internal Revenue Service since March 2008.

The Senate failed to advance an infrastructure jobs bill Thursday that would have been paid for through higher taxes on millionaires.

A group of Democrats on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee has introduced a bill to extend federal unemployment insurance through 2012 and provide tax relief to employers in states with outstanding UI loans.

Many of you, I'm sure, have been reading that the U.S. Postal Service is on the precipice of default, struggling to avoid austerity measures in the face of its deficit, which, according to reports, will reach $9.2 billion this year.

President Barack Obama pressed for passage of his jobs bill, promising a boost in the economy in exchange for higher taxes on the wealthy.

State tax revenues increased 10.8 percent in the second quarter of 2011, but revenues for local governments headed in the opposite direction.

The free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama signed into law by President Obama earlier this month included little-publicized provisions that would increase tax preparer penalties and crack down on prisoner tax fraud.

The House voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to repeal the 3 percent withholding rule on payments to contractors.

President Barack Obama pledged to help borrowers cope with student loan debt by capping student loan repayments at 10 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income, starting next year.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., has released a discussion draft version of proposed legislation to transition the U.S. from a worldwide system of taxation to a territorial system, while lowering the top tax rate for both individuals and businesses to 25 percent.

Texas Governor Rick Perry introduced a plan for a flat tax of 20 percent in an effort to revive his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination.

The Internal Revenue Service is facing challenges keeping ahead of financial services companies that create sophisticated financial derivatives and offer them as a way to evade tax liabilities.

New information made public by the U.S. Federal Election Commission reveals that members of the accounting profession are opening their checkbooks early and often in an effort to help candidates in the 2012 Presidential elections.

One day after verbally scuffling with fellow GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, Gov. Rick Perry called for implementing a flax tax in what many saw as a preview of his economic policies.

Chief financial officers and investors have increased their support for global accounting standards since the start of the economic crisis in 2008, according to an international survey published Thursday by the global Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Following a scathing report by the Center for Public integrity, which revealed that the Department of Defense lacks any mechanism to shows how the billions in taxpayer dollars are spent, the agency pledged to clean up its accounting practices by 2017.

As with most legislation, the recently derailed American Jobs Act included some good ideas, some bad, and some that were mere political posturing. But now that it has been defeated in the Senate, the focus is on what parts of it might survive in separate future pieces of legislation.