Finance

The House Financial Services Committee plans to probe the regulatory failures that led up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers after a bankruptcy examiner released a damning report last week on the investment bank’s accounting manipulations.

The health care reform reconciliation bill makes a number of adjustments in the excise taxes on so-called “Cadillac” insurance plans and medical device makers, along with Medicare taxes and the fees imposed on pharmaceutical companies.

The jobs bill signed by President Obama on Thursday includes various revenue-raising provisions that would put foreign financial institutions with U.S. taxpayers under a new reporting and tax regime.

President Obama has signed legislation that provides employers with tax incentives to hire unemployed workers.

One week after California CPA Phil Liberatore announced he was running for a congressional seat in that state's 42nd district, former New York lawmaker and Arthur Andersen partner Joseph DioGuardi announced he is challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., for her Senate seat.

The Senate has approved legislation that provides companies with a payroll tax exemption for hiring new employees.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., has released a draft version of the financial regulatory reform legislation that he has been working to write since the House passed its own legislation last December.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., has introduced legislation to encourage small business investment and job creation by expanding the research and development tax credit.

Despite its significant tax increases, President Obama's 2011 $3.8 trillion budget plan contains a number of revenue provisions calculated to encourage business expansion and move the economy upward.

A group of senators has asked executives overseeing the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to account for the high salaries, perks, executive retirement plans and lobbying expenses at the nonprofit group.

Phil Liberatore, a CPA and the founder of a business called IRS Problem Solvers, has launched a congressional campaign challenging a Republican incumbent from the right.

The Treasury and Energy Departments, along with the IRS, said billions of dollars in government investment grants for smart grid technology would be non-taxable, paving the way for the technology to move forward.

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The Senate has passed a bill to extend unemployment benefits through the end of the year as well as a number of tax cuts that expired at the end of last year.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., and ranking member Dave Camp, R-Mich., have introduced legislation to allow taxpayers to claim charitable deductions in 2009 for Chilean earthquake relief.

The Congressional Budget Office has released an estimate of the budgetary effects of President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 and found that some of the tax cuts could add another $3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., has been chosen as acting chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a day after Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., took a leave of absence from the leadership of the powerful tax-writing committee.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has temporarily stepped aside as chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee amid mounting calls for his resignation.

Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to extend unemployment benefits, a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA health insurance for the unemployed, and a large set of tax breaks that expired at the end of last year.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., have introduced legislation to eliminate many of the exemptions, deductions, credits and other tax breaks in the Tax Code.