Finance

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., has introduced a bill that would close tax loopholes blamed for encouraging multinational companies to ship jobs overseas.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has unveiled some new changes to the Small Business Jobs Act, in an effort to win more support for the bill.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to members of the House and Senate asking them to repeal the section of the new health care law that requires businesses to report to the Internal Revenue Service any purchase from a vendor of goods or services worth $600 or more during the calendar year.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Michh., has released a draft bill that would provide tax credits for manufacturers of renewable energy equipment and funding for other sources of clean energy.

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., have teamed up to sponsor legislation that would provide tax credits for the use of hydrogen fuel cells in forklift trucks and other industrial vehicles.

Two Republican lawmakers are warning the Treasury Department against making a change in tax policy that would favor trial lawyers who handle lawsuits on a contingency basis and want to deduct loans to clients.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., former chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, will face a trial before his congressional colleagues after a House investigative panel found that he violated ethics rules.

President Obama signed a law Thursday that aims to bar payments to federal contractors that haven’t paid their taxes and to make sure that payments go out in the correct amounts to the right people.

The House passed the Senate version of the unemployment extension on Thursday, sending the bill to President Obama for his signature.

Hoping to get the Small Business Jobs Act passed before the August recess, Senate Democrats have modified the legislation in an effort to avoid another filibuster battle.

The Senate approved an extension on employment benefits on Wednesday evening, with the House poised to pass the extension on Thursday.

President Obama has signed the sweeping financial regulatory reform bill into law after a year of pushing the legislation through Congress.

Senate Democrats achieved their goal of reaching 60 votes to invoke cloture on a bill to extend unemployment benefits through the end of November, ending a Republican filibuster.

President Obama called for an up-or-down vote in the Senate on extending unemployment benefits.

Washington, D.C.

Railing at Accounting Today for engaging in "politics" in an editorial critical of some tax and economic policies of the Obama administration (June 7-20, 2010, page 9), Harry Bose engages in some politics of his own in attempting to make his case. His response is more amusing than informative.

Goldman Sachs will pay a record penalty of $550 million and reform its business practices to settle SEC charges that the bank misled its investors in marketing a subprime mortgage product just as the U.S. housing market was starting to collapse.

Senators Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has proposed extending the HIRE Act tax credit for employers who hire out-of-work employees.

The Senate passed a sweeping financial regulatory reform bill on Thursday by a 60-39 margin after three Republicans joined all but one Democrat in supporting the Wall Street overhaul.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to hold a procedural vote on extending unemployment benefits next Tuesday and a vote on the financial reform bill this Thursday.