Finance

With airlines under pressure from lawmakers, Delta Air Lines said it would refund tax money paid by travelers in the wake of a suspension of non-essential services by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Senate approved a debt limit increase on Tuesday, narrowly averting an unprecedented default on the federal government’s debt obligations.

The House of Representatives voted to raise the debt ceiling, only a day before the August 2 deadline for averting a default on the federal government’s debt obligations.

It looks as though the time has come for comprehensive patent reform, including the banning of tax strategy patents, if the groundswell of opposition is any type of barometer.

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders said Sunday night that they have agreed on the framework of a budget deal that both Democratic and Republican leaders plan to present to their caucuses on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., saw his plan to raise the debt ceiling turned back Sunday afternoon by a vote of 50-49.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced a bill in Congress aimed at leveling the playing field for sales tax charges between online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores.

A group of Democratic senators urged airlines to reduce their airfares and pass the savings from the temporary expiration of airline ticket taxes on to their passengers.

President Obama called on Congress to move quickly on lifting the debt ceiling Friday as the August 2 deadline rapidly approaches.

IMGCAP(1)]With Medicare fraud costing the federal government an estimated $60 billion a year, it makes perfect sense that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has tapped aerospace innovator Northrop Grumman to create a predictive model that will detect fraud. Or does it?

The Senate Finance Committee asked a series of corporate executives about whether they could accept the loss of some corporate tax breaks in exchange for lower tax rates. For the most part, they said yes.

Congress held an oversight hearing Thursday to examine progress on the Internal Revenue Service’s new tax return preparer initiative.

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.