Finance

The Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act of 2010 is basically a bailout for states that are living beyond their means and have problems meeting their payrolls.

Dan Rostenkowski, the former chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, has died at the age of 82.

In the midst of their August recess, House lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill to vote to approve legislation to provide $26 billion in aid to states to avoid teacher layoffs and Medicaid cuts, paid for in part by clamping down on foreign tax credits.

Thirty-one members of the House have signed a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner urging changes in the Internal Revenue Service’s proposed plan to regulate paid income tax return preparers.

The Senate has revised the Small Business Jobs Act tax relief and lending bill with amendments scaling back controversial new requirements for 1099 reporting of business transactions.

The Treasury Department has released a new state-by-state report on the number of newly hired workers whose employers are eligible to claim tax credits under the HIRE Act, increasing the estimate from 4.5 million to 5.6 million workers.

House Democrats blasted Republicans for blocking a bill with tax breaks for small businesses and the removal of a controversial 1099 information reporting requirement after the bill failed to garner the two-thirds margin needed for passage.

A new bill in Congress would provide a one-time $250 payment to senior citizens, veterans and the disabled in the event that no Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is payable in 2011.

Senate Republicans united in blocking a vote on legislation to provide tax breaks to small businesses along with a $30 billion lending fund.

The House ethics committee laid out a series of charges against Congressman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., on Thursday, including his failure to pay taxes on rental income he earned from a vacation villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.

The House Committee on Financial Services voted to approve Internet gambling legislation, a critical step in making online gambling legal in the U.S.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has launched a mobile version of its Web site that will allow users to more easily access GAO reports on their BlackBerries, iPhones, Droids, and other small-screen mobile devices.

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.