Finance

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., released a plan Thursday to write legislation that would end billions of dollars in tax breaks for large multinational oil and gas companies.

President Obama has written to congressional leaders encouraging them to eliminate special tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to do a better job of collecting accurate tax return information from federal, state and local government entities, according to a new report.

Thomson Reuters released the latest Onesource Indirect Tax report on changes to state and local sales and use tax codes for the first quarter of 2011. According to the report, 83.3 percent of the changes are increases and new taxes and most are at the city and county level. They are likely a response to cut-backs in federal and state funding.

Lee Farkas, former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., was found guilty of 14 counts of securities, bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud for masterminding a scheme that prosecutors said cheated investors and the government out of $3 billion and led to the 2009 collapse of his company and Colonial Bank.

Three influential senators have written to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman, asking him to re-evaluate the two-year time limit for innocent spouses to request tax relief.

In his best impersonation of a fiscal conservative, President Obama last week called for $1 trillion tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans as part of an effort to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next dozen years.

The House passed the controversial budget plan introduced last week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., in a largely party-line vote on Friday.

The White House introduced the ability to generate a “federal taxpayer receipt” on its Web site Friday.

It’s doubtful whether the tax changes proposed by the President in his speech on Wednesday would generate much of a dent in the deficit, even if they were to be accepted by Congress.

President Obama signed legislation Thursday repealing the expanded 1099 reporting requirements in the health care reform law and Small Business Jobs Act.

A House committee has passed two bills that would prohibit people with seriously delinquent tax debts from receiving federal contracts or grants or serving as federal employees.

A bipartisan pair of senators has introduced a bill that would require most employers to file their W-2 forms electronically.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing Wednesday on how the Tax Code’s burdens on individuals demonstrate the need for comprehensive tax reform.

President Obama outlined his plan for reducing the budget deficit by $4 trillion in the next 12 years during a speech Wednesday in which he said taxes would need to be raised on the wealthy and itemized deductions limited.

The eleventh-hour budget deal struck by the White House with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to avert a government shutdown over the weekend depends to a large extent upon some accounting sleight of hand to achieve the claim of $38 billion in spending cuts.

A new study from Ernst & Young examines the impact on flow-through businesses of the tax reform proposals, and cautions against lowering corporate tax rates at the expense of S Corporations.

The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing Tuesday to examine tax administration systems around the world.

The American Institute of CPAs has joined up with the White House on a new initiative aimed at helping veterans and their families who want to start or grow a small business.

A pair of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a bill that would allow the courts to intercept tax refunds from delinquent debtors who owe restitution to victims or have outstanding court fees.