Finance

President Barack Obama ordered the Treasury Department, the Office of Management and Budget, and other federal agencies to block contractors who are seriously delinquent in their taxes from receiving new government contracts.

The devastating earthquake in Haiti last week is spurring relief efforts from countries around the world, but the U.S. is playing a key role in providing both help and security, along with much-needed funds.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress plan to introduce legislation that would allow individuals who make charitable contributions to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti to claim an itemized charitable deduction on their tax return this year instead of waiting until next year.

As Wall Street firms prepare to hand out record levels of bonuses, a group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill have co-sponsored a bill that would slap a 50 percent tax on many of the bonuses.

The White House has reportedly cemented a deal with labor union leaders scaling back the tax on so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans.

President Barack Obama has proposed levying a fee on large financial firms and banks to pay for the costs of the financial bailout.

The leaders of a group of Wall Street banks admitted to mistakes made by the financial industry while appearing before a commission charged with uncovering the reasons behind the financial meltdown.

Attorney General Eric Holder said a newly established government task force would crack down on the kinds of financial fraud that led to the Madoff Ponzi scheme and other losses.

The Obama administration is handing out $2.3 billion in Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for clean energy projects to provide jobs across the U.S. after announcing a disappointing employment report for December.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report that examines more effective ways to protect consumers from fraudulent financial schemes.

The American Institute of CPAs said it strongly supports recently introduced legislation requiring the comptroller general, who leads the Government Accountability Office, to be a CPA.

The Internal Revenue Service has extended its moratorium on collecting penalties on listed tax shelter transactions from small businesses after an influential senator threatened to block the nominations of key Treasury Department nominees.

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, threatened to hold up the confirmation of all nominees to Treasury Department posts unless the Treasury and the IRS do more to ease tax penalties on small businesses.

President Obama urged a group of leaders of community banks to increase their lending to small businesses.

Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee said they intend to work on passing legislation to extend expiring tax breaks early next year.

The Internal Revenue Service is unable to verify taxpayer eligibility for the majority of the tax benefits and credits provided by the Recovery Act, according to a new report.

For at least the first few days of 2010, and probably longer, executors of the estates of people dying after Dec. 31, 2009, will be operating in a difficult environment after the Senate’s failure to extend the estate tax at its current rates.

The Senate overcame a key procedural hurdle early Monday morning on the arduous journey to approving health care reform legislation with a 1:00 am vote approving an amendment by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that made changes to secure the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster.

The House passed two bills earlier this month with provisions related to the use of Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, the interactive data-tagging technology that the SEC has begun requiring large public companies to use when filing their financial statements.

A group of 13 senators has written to the Appropriations Committee requesting funds to extend Small Business Administration Recovery Act lending programs.