Finance

The House voted to set the inheritance tax at 45 percent permanently for estates larger than $3.5 million.

The House Financial Services Committee has approved legislation aimed at preventing the failure of large financial institutions from turning into a systemwide crisis.

The tax subcommittee of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board has decided to postpone its report outlining tax reform plans for the White House after being inundated with suggestions.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced a bill that would impose a temporary war surtax beginning in 2011 to pay for the war in Afghanistan.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has published a paper questioning how financial statements can provide more information about the long-term sustainability of current government programs.

The American Institute of CPAs has written to the leaders of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee opposing language in a proposed law that could expose more accountants to fraud lawsuits.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced the Senate’s version of the health care reform bill, which includes a new 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery.

President Obama has established an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force that will work with state and local authorities to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes.

A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate and House would reduce the penalties assessed by the IRS on tax shelter investments by small businesses to put them in proportion with the tax benefits received.

President Barack Obama said Thursday he plans to hold a forum in December at the White House on jobs and economic growth.

A measure approved last week by the House Financial Services Committee to change Sarbanes-Oxley audit rules would lead to a higher incidence of fraud and an increase in the amount of fraud losses, said the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Tax accountants who help U.S. taxpayers hide their income in foreign banks are in the crosshairs of a new push by Congress and the Obama administration to crack down on offshore tax haven cheats.

The House voted to approve health care reform, moving the legislation now to an uncertain outcome in the Senate.

President Barack Obama has signed the extension of the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, along with an extension of unemployment benefits.

The American Institute of CPAs and Financial Executives International have written to Congress to express their objections to proposed legislation that would displace the SEC from its role of overseeing the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Congress has passed a bill on unemployment that would require electronic filing by all return preparers “except those who neither prepare nor reasonably expect to prepare ten or more individual income tax returns in a calendar year.” The measure is effective for returns prepared after Dec. 31, 2010.

The Senate voted by a 98-0 margin to extend the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit while also expanding the credit to existing homeowners who want to move to another residence.

The House Financial Services Committee voted to exempt small and midsized public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley audit requirements.

Financial planning trade groups have written a letter to congressional leaders protesting an amendment that would extend the regulatory authority of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to cover investment advisers who are associated with broker-dealers under FINRA authority.

Washington, D.C. - Americans may be in for shocking news soon. Under a new standard issued by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, the federal government is going to have to issue annual reports on its fiscal sustainability.