Finance

The Senate approved a patent reform bill on Thursday containing provisions that eliminate patents on tax strategies.

A bipartisan trio of senators has introduced legislation that would foster the growth of S corporations owned by Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or S-ESOPs.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney introduced a 160-page plan for generating jobs and economic growth, including reductions in the corporate tax rate, along with the elimination of taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends.

Labor unions representing registered nurses have organized protests outside the offices of 61 members of Congress calling on lawmakers to support a Wall Street transaction tax.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in August, with a net gain of zero jobs and the unemployment rate stuck at 9.1 percent.

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman described his plans for tax and regulatory reform during a campaign appearance in New Hampshire.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., called for cuts in corporate taxes and the elimination of capital gains and estate taxes in a speech last weekend as she campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination.

The IRS said its summer 2011 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin is now available.

A new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration concludes that the IRS needs to improve the timeliness and accuracy of its response to taxpayer complaints about math error adjustments.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a CPA mobility bill into law in New York State.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been asked to respond to allegations that it destroyed documents relating to thousands of investigations.

President Obama has been pushing to extend the 2-percentage-point cut in the payroll tax through next year, but this is one tax cut that his opponents in Congress may not agree to allow.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board plans to hold an open meeting next Tuesday to discuss its proposed regulations calling for greater auditor independence and mandatory rotation of audit firms.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new whistleblower program took effect Friday, and the SEC has created a new Web page where people can report a violation of the federal securities laws and apply for a financial award.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has written a letter to President Obama disagreeing with the president’s definition of the term “tax reform.”

Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the credit rating for U.S. debt could put new pressure on the members of the so-called “super committee” in Congress to agree on tax reforms.

After the Senate approved a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, leaders of the tax-writing committees in both chambers of Congress have asked the Internal Revenue Service to reinstate taxes on airline ticket in an orderly way.

President Obama proposed a new tax credit for businesses that hire unemployed veterans.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that employers added 117,000 jobs in July, sending the unemployment rate down a tenth of a percent to 9.1 percent.

Despite the debt limit deal that Democrats and Republicans in Congress managed to hammer out at the 11th hour this week, the U.S. Treasury is still facing the threat of a credit rating downgrade.