Finance

Senate Republicans blocked President Obama’s jobs package with its extension of the payroll tax cuts and unemployment insurance, tax credits for new hires and wage increases, and surtax on millionaires.

The American Institute of CPAs has written to the leaders of Congress’s main tax-writing committee urging them to repeal a requirement that would soon force federal, state and local governments to withhold 3 percent on the payments they made to most government contractors, including certain other payments such as Medicare.

The unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, despite the addition of 103,000 jobs.

Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., introduced legislation Thursday allowing multinational corporations to repatriate their foreign earnings at a reduced tax rate.

President Barack Obama said Thursday he was “comfortable” with the changes made by Senate Democrats in his jobs bill on Wednesday, including a 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires starting in 2013.

The airline industry’s trade organization, the Air Transport Association of America, is asking Congress to reject President Obama’s plan to levy $3.5 billion a year in new taxes and fees for airlines and passengers, saying it would increase fares or reduce service, resulting in job losses.

As multinational corporations and lobbyists push for a reduction in the corporate tax rate and a tax holiday on repatriated foreign profits, the tax loopholes that have encouraged companies to shift their income abroad have managed to stay largely intact.

A bipartisan trio of lawmakers have introduced a bill that would update the existing tax law to allow formerly homeless young people to pursue a four-year college education and still qualify for housing built with Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee demanded Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service suspend a proposed regulation that would require banks to disclose the amount of interest paid to nonresident aliens.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has vetoed a controversial tax credit that was awarded to the MTV reality series “Jersey Shore.”

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain pulled off an upset victory in the Florida straw poll over the weekend, campaigning on his 9-9-9 plan to cut taxes.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has extended the deadline until October 14 for constituents to comment on its recent proposals for improving the disclosures for pension accounting and financial reporting.

CCH has issued a new Tax Briefing on President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan, with its $1.5 trillion in tax increases.

The plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction recently released by President Obama offers a view into specific tax provisions that Congress may be asked to enact before the end of the year.

The Center for Audit Quality, along with the Council of Institutional Investors and CFA Institute, have written to the leaders of the House Financial Services Committee urging them to resist efforts to exempt more public companies from compliance with the internal controls auditing provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The two leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have introduced legislation to make the simplified research and development tax credit permanent.

President Barack Obama introduced a $3 trillion deficit reduction plan on Monday that includes a new tax on millionaires, lower corporate tax rates, and the closing of tax loopholes and tax breaks, especially for the wealthy.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has written a letter to several U.S. newspapers about his concerns over recent efforts by the U.S. government to force banks into disclosing the financial information of dual U.S. and Canadian citizens and other Canadians.

President Barack Obama is expected to propose a new tax rate for millionaires as part of his long-term deficit reduction plan on Monday.