Finance

In his weekly address on Saturday, July 26, 2014, President Obama criticized large corporations that employ tax inversion strategies saying, “They’re keeping most of their business inside the United States, but they’re basically renouncing their citizenship and declaring that they’re based somewhere else, just to avoid paying their fair share.”

The House fell only a few votes short of rolling back a requirement for companies with annual revenue below $250 million from filing their financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the data-tagged Extensible Business Reporting Language format.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 252,000 in December, and the unemployment rate declined two-tenths of a percentage point to 5.6 percent. While job gains occurred in professional and business services, along with other industries such as construction, food services and drinking places, health care, and manufacturing, December's job losses in accounting and bookkeeping offset the gains in November.

Two Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have introduced legislation to regulate paid tax preparers in response to the federal court decision that found the Internal Revenue Service had exceeded its statutory authority in regulating preparers.

Large employers are increasingly putting an end to their most generous health-care coverage as a tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans looms closer under Obamacare.

The Treasury Department and the Department of Health and Human Services are getting ready for the 2015 tax-filing season and the onslaught of questions they anticipate about the Affordable Care Act.

The House of Representatives passed the first piece of legislation of the 114th Congress on Wednesday, the Hire More Heroes Act of 2015 (H.R. 22), with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to make it easier to reduce taxes, passing a rule on the first day of the new session to let lawmakers assume that lower levies boost the economy and cover some of their own budgetary costs.

Thomson Reuters’ Checkpoint research service has released a special report on the recent tax extenders legislation that was approved last month by Congress, along with the new ABLE Accounts that provide a type of tax-advantaged savings program for disabled individuals.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have issued final regulations under the Affordable Care Act to protect patients in tax-exempt hospitals from aggressive debt collection practices and to provide other rules for charitable hospitals.

U.S. Representative Michael Grimm of New York, who pleaded guilty to a federal tax charge, said he plans to resign from the House.

U.S. Congressman Michael Grimm pleaded guilty to a federal tax charge, taking the possibility of prison time in stride as he told reporters after the proceeding that he won’t give up his House seat.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a new publication to help taxpayers better understand how the Affordable Care Act affects their taxes.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released its Semiannual Report to Congress, with a special focus on how the Internal Revenue Service has handled its responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act.

The IRS is freezing hiring, stopping most overtime pay and warning that it won’t answer about half the calls it will receive during the upcoming tax-filing season.

The $1.1 trillion spending bill passed by Congress this week and signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday contains a provision directing the Treasury Department to implement uniform standards for taxpayers claiming refundable credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit to stem improper payments.

Congress’s long-awaited passage of tax extenders legislation provides a short-term extension through only the end of this year of dozens of familiar tax breaks for businesses and individuals, along with a new savings program for the disabled.

Affordable Care Act-related tax issues await CPAs and those who prepare their own returns this upcoming tax season, according to the National Conference of CPA Practitioners.

In the waning days of the congressional term, a lawmaker has introduced legislation that would offer a reduced tax rate of 8.75 percent on corporate profits repatriated from abroad and use the money to pay for infrastructure improvements.

The surge in U.S. companies avoiding taxes by taking a foreign address has been condemned by President Barack Obama and stirred a policy debate in Congress. What’s often overlooked is that these “inversions” are typically a final step in a hopscotch of multinational tax dodging.