Finance

Lacking Congress’ ability to address problems with deficit spending, financially squeezed state legislatures across the country are considering desperate tax increases that would have been politically unthinkable just a few years ago.

The Senate approved a job creation bill Wednesday after 13 Republicans agreed to vote for the measure, which includes tax breaks for businesses that hire or retain employees.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has received just over 200 comment letters since it posted its proposed roadmap for transitioning to International Financial Reporting Standards on its Web site in 2008, and it’s now receiving some extra suggestions as it prepares to publicly deliberate Wednesday on the roadmap.

The Senate voted to consider a $15 billion job creation bill after five Republican senators agreed to overcome a filibuster on the measure, which would provide tax breaks to companies that hire and retain employees.

The White House has published the health care reform package that President Obama plans to present to Republican and Democratic congressional leaders at the summit on Thursday.

New rules for credit card companies to follow took effect Monday, putting new restrictions on the interest rate hikes and penalty fees they can charge consumers and small businesses.

The Treasury Department announced plans to extend and expand the New Markets Tax Credit with a proposal in the fiscal year 2011 budget to provide $5 billion in credits to speed recovery in hard-hit communities.

The American Institute of CPAs has dispatched a letter to the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee asking them not to allow a systemic risk regulator to alter accounting standards in the financial regulatory reform legislation they are drafting.

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board is facing several interrelated controversial issues that may ultimately determine the financial viability of the U.S. government.

The Internal Revenue Service needed to scramble to implement various provisions of last year’s Recovery Act to boost the economy as quickly as possible, but it now has to improve its enforcement and reporting to safeguard against abuses, according to a government report.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has introduced a bill that would tax more Wall Street bonuses than similar legislation introduced a week ago.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has unveiled a stripped-down version of the draft jobs legislation that was proposed only hours earlier by the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Finance Committee.

Senate Finance Committee leaders publicly released a draft Thursday of the widely anticipated jobs bill they plan to introduce, including payroll tax provisions and the extension of a number of tax breaks that expired last year.

The Senate has unanimously approved a bill that would prevent small businesses from incurring large tax penalties aimed at large corporations and wealthy individuals who invest in tax shelters.

Federal financial regulatory agencies and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors have issued a statement aimed at encouraging more banks to lend to small businesses.

Senate Democrats have begun circulating a draft version of the jobs bill they plan to introduce, with a series of tax breaks and tax extenders designed to lure Republican support.

There’s a certain amount of suspense these days in our nation’s capital about what’s going to happen not only with health care reform, but also financial regulations.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Jim Webb, D-Va., have introduced legislation that would impose a tax on large bonuses paid by Wall Street banks and other firms that received more than $5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2009.

Despite its massive tax increases, the President’s 2011 Budget Plan contains a number of revenue provisions calculated to encourage business expansion and move the economy upward.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Chilean Finance Minister Andrés Velasco signed a new income tax treaty between the United States and Chile to provide certainty and stability of tax treatment for U.S. and Chilean cross-border investors.