Finance

The passage of the financial rescue plan by Congress last week depended in part on the insertion of a provision on reevaluating the fair value accounting standards, which could come back to bite the same lobbyists who urged its inclusion.

With the credit markets tightening, a majority of the 688 CFOs and senior comptrollers surveyed by Grant Thornton see the cost of credit increasing for their companies, and the availability of credit decreasing.

With the hoopla of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions still reverberating throughout the country and the election less than a month away, Accounting Today examines the tax plans offered by both Democratic nominee Barack Obama and GOP candidate John McCain as each vies to become the 44th occupant of the White House.The McCain plan Republican presidential candidate John McCain's plan to shake up Washington starts with some serious rattling of the current federal Tax Code, including a proposal aimed at making millions of Americans less dependent on accountants and other professional tax return preparers.

The House approved the $700 billion financial industry rescue package by a 263-171 margin on Friday, after defeating it on Monday.

After failing to clear a House vote on Monday, the $700 billion rescue plan for Wall Street passed the Senate by a comfortable margin of 74-25 and now awaits a House vote, which could come Friday.

The Senate voted to reaffirm the Securities and Exchange Commission's authority to suspend mark-to-market accounting as part of its approval of the financial rescue plan, as fair value measurement comes under fire from banking groups.

While the Treasury bailout seems to be heading toward another vote this week, the state of the alternative minimum tax patch and the various tax extenders now seems in doubt.

The Internal Revenue Service has released Notice 2008-82, which protects reservists from losing funds in their health Flexible Spending Arrangement accounts after being called to active duty.

The Treasury Department said it has opened its Temporary Guarantee Program for Money Market Funds, whereupon the Treasury will guarantee the share price of any publicly offered eligible money market mutual fund – both retail and institutional – that applies, and pays a fee, to participate in the program.

Senate leaders were expected to vote Wednesday evening on their version of the $700 billion financial bailout package after compromising on a series of tax breaks and increasing the limit on insured bank deposits.

In a massive setback for the Bush administration and the Treasury Department, House lawmakers defeated the mammoth $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street, sending stocks spiraling and leaders on both sides of the aisle vowing to resurrect the package as soon as possible.

The issuance of the so-called Final Report of the Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession to the U.S. Department proves conclusively to me that many of the powers that be need to gain a better understanding of transparency. It isn’t what’s in the massive document that tells me this, but it is what is specifically left out of both the document and the press release announcing the report’s approval.

The House has passed a bill that includes extensions of various expiring tax credits and deductions, including the R&D tax credit and incentives for renewable energy, along with a provision equalizing the penalty standards for tax preparers and taxpayers, but its fate remains uncertain as it faces the threat of a veto.

A new Web site uses a financial modeling program to calculate a user's taxes under either of the major presidential candidates.

The House has passed a fix for the alternative minimum tax to keep it from spreading to more taxpayers next year, as well as a separate bill to provide tax relief to businesses and families affected by natural disasters.

Under pressure from Congress and the IRS, H&R Block has decided that 100 percent of its tax products and services, including its TaxCut software, will now include free federal electronic filing.

The Senate passed by unanimous consent a bill that helps more children leave foster care and join permanent families, while clarifying the definition of a child for tax purposes.

A study of both presidential candidates' tax plans finds that they will both reduce millions of taxpayers' liability to zero.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke faced mounting criticism on Capitol Hill as they tried to explain their newly hatched bailout plan to a skeptical Senate Banking Committee.

The Senate passed a bill that would extend expiring tax cuts, patch the alternative minimum tax for another year, provide clean energy incentives and equalize the disclosure standards for tax preparers and taxpayers.