Finance

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., offered 18 proposals to cut $1.29 trillion from the federal budget deficit over 10 years, including closing corporate tax loopholes and eliminating special tax breaks for wealthy Americans and big companies.

President Obama used his weekly address to say it was necessary to raise taxes on the wealthy to help close the budget deficit.

The Federal Unemployment Tax Act surtax is set to expire Thursday after House Republicans refused to extend the 35-year-old “temporary” unemployment surtax.

President Obama took Republican lawmakers to task during a news conference Wednesday for inflexibly refusing to compromise on taxes as part of a deal to raise the debt limit.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson told Congress that proposed budget cuts for the Internal Revenue Service could reduce taxpayer service and compliance.

The complexity of the federal Tax Code can engender errors and underpaid taxes, according to a new government study.

U.S.-based multinational corporations and their lobbyists are pushing hard for a so-called “tax holiday” that would repatriate the earnings from their foreign subsidiaries, arguing that it would inject up to $1 trillion into the U.S. economy, but the prospects for job growth are murky at best.

California Governor Jerry Brown and Democratic lawmakers have struck a deal to close the state’s estimated $15 billion budget deficit, including provisions to force online retailers like Amazon.com to collect sales tax from customers.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is expected to issue new proposals this week that would require state and local governments to be more open about their pension-funding obligations.

Eight Democratic senators have written to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to address problems faced by same-sex couples while filing their 2010 federal income tax returns.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has exited from negotiations over resolving the problem of the looming debt ceiling, saying he is unable to agree to any tax increases.

It looks as though the time has come for comprehensive patent reform, which includes the banning of tax strategy patents.

Better implementation by the Internal Revenue Service of two 2008 laws involving reporting of cost basis and transaction settlement could increase taxpayers’ voluntary compliance, according to a new government report.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., has introduced legislation to amend the Tax Code to regulate and tax Internet gambling.

The Senate voted Thursday to approve an amendment to repeal a tax credit for ethanol blenders.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., has released a public letter he sent to the Internal Revenue Service demanding information about its recent investigation into donations to politically active tax-exempt organizations and the agency’s apparent drive to impose gift taxes on these monies.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Washington is co-sponsoring legislation and demanding an independent probe to stop the government and a trustee from suing innocent victims who invested in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

The Senate vote Tuesday on repealing the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit failed, but it could be a sign of things to come as the tax reform debate heats up in the midst of talks to raise the debt limit.

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty outlined his tax cut proposals during a speech in which he called for lower tax rates than other Republican presidential candidates have suggested so far.