Finance

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.

The House narrowly passed a jobs bill aimed at reducing unemployment, but the legislation’s prospects are uncertain in the Senate.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to require companies to disclose more information about their compensation practices and the background of their board members.

CCH has issued a Special Tax Briefing on the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 that was approved this month by the House.

Washington, D.C. - A measure by the House Financial Services Committee that would exempt small and midsized companies from Sarbanes-Oxley audit requirements has drawn fire from a number of organizations, including the American Institute of CPAs, the Center for Audit Quality and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

The House has approved a comprehensive financial reform bill, albeit with a number of key provisions weakened in recent days.

The House approved the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, with extensions of a number of tax breaks that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, including the R&D credit.

President Obama described a series of proposals aimed at encouraging companies to add more jobs, including tax cuts for small businesses.

Large corporations have dominated the use of the research tax credit, with 549 corporations with receipts of $1 billion or more claiming over half of the $6 billion of net credits in 2005, the most recent year available, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office.

The White House convened a jobs summit in which President Obama heard from business and union leaders about various proposals for reducing unemployment, including tax incentives for job creation.