Finance

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy and the American Institute of CPAs have launched a new Web site, CPAmobility.org, that provides up-to-date information on the status of CPA mobility laws across the country.

The Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight held a hearing to examine the diversion of federal contracts for small businesses to large companies.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing to weigh the pros and cons of two different consumption tax models: the value-added tax and the FairTax.

A pair of Democratic senators has written to the head of Delta Airlines and the Air Transport Association telling him that airlines should not be raising their fares to make money off the temporary expiration of ticket taxes.

As the battle continues in Washington over how to avert a default on the government’s debt obligations, the possibility of imminent tax increases seems to be fading.

President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, made the case for their rival approaches to controlling the nation’s spiraling budget deficit as the clock ticks down to the August 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling to avoid an unprecedented default on the national debt.

If Congress and the White House fail to reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling, half of U.S. companies expect to take defensive actions such as freezing their hiring, cutting spending and lengthening their payment cycle to vendors.

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee plans to hold a hearing next Thursday on the Internal Revenue Service’s recent efforts to step up regulation of tax return preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued letters denying tax-exempt status to three unidentified political groups that had applied for the exemption as Section 501(c)(4) groups.

The so-called “cut, cap and balance plan” legislation that passed the House would require the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would mandate a two-thirds supermajority to approve any future tax increases.

A bipartisan group of senators that has been meeting on and off for months to hammer out a budget deficit reduction plan appears to have reunited and gained support on both sides of the aisle for a plan to reduce the budget deficit by $3.7 trillion over 10 years.

Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has proposed a deficit reduction plan estimated to save $9 trillion over the next 10 years by slashing hundreds of government programs, but also increasing taxes in some areas.

Credit Suisse said it has become a target of a Justice Department investigation into its private banking business.

A new bill from a pair of Democratic senators would eliminate a tax break on corporate stock options.

Congress’s two tax-writing committees convened a rare joint hearing Wednesday to consider whether the Tax Code is providing too many incentives for accumulating debt as opposed to equity.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued two new standards Wednesday that aim to improve government financial reporting in two timely areas: providing taxpayers and others with information about how past transactions will continue to affect a government’s financial statements in the future, and clarifying the circumstances in which hedge accounting continues to be applied when a swap counterparty, or related credit support provider, is replaced.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and several other senators have introduced a bill to close offshore tax loopholes and strengthen offshore tax enforcement.

Amazon.com is trying to get a referendum on the California ballot to get the recently enacted online sales tax law reversed.

Congressman John Tierney, D-Mass., has introduced a bill that would eliminate about 27 different tax expenditures, including tax breaks for energy companies.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued a “preliminary views” document Monday on the recognition and measurement of elements of financial statements.