Finance

Internal Revenue Service commissioner John Koskinen has written a letter to the leaders of Congress’s main tax committees urging them to decide soon on what to do about extending dozens of expired tax provisions, or else next tax season and the processing of tax refunds could be delayed.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s proposed rules to prevent companies from taking a foreign address have ended one deal and forced another to get more expensive financing.

H&R Block is debuting a new program to encourage consumer savings at tax time, working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. government agency charged with making financial markets work for American consumers, to encourage consumers to use tax refunds to build savings.

One of the efforts states are making to increase their revenue stream is to tighten up their enforcement of worker misclassification.

Pfizer Inc. has approached Actavis Plc about a deal that could allow the U.S. drugmaker to move its address overseas and reduce taxes, in a sign the Obama administration’s efforts to curtail inversions might fall short.

The Treasury Department announced steps that will make it harder for U.S. companies to move their addresses outside the country to reduce taxes, clamping down on the practice known as inversions.

Large partnerships, including private-equity firms and hedge funds, are often so complex that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service can’t audit them effectively, the Government Accountability Office found.

Congress made some moves this week in working on tax extenders, even though it is not expected to pass any legislation until after the midterm elections.

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., has introduced a bill that would help low-income married couples deduct twice as much of the interest charged on their student loan debts.

The Internal Revenue Service is being urged to improve its efficiency in auditing the growing number of large partnerships, in a new government report.

The chairman of the House Small Business Committee, Sam Graves, R-Mo., has introduced legislation to streamline and simplify the loan application process at the Small Business Administration by requiring the agency to permit the use of electronic signatures and electronic records.

If there were ever a politically opportune time for Congress to remove the National Football League’s tax exemption, it would seem to be now.

Six years ago this week, investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, observed Attorney General Eric Holder at New York University Law School during a speech Wednesday. This marked “the culmination of a period of deregulation, excessive risk-taking, questionable lending practices, and defective underwriting that heralded the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,” he said.

A Deloitte official defended the firm’s mandatory retirement requirements for partners in a congressional hearing Wednesday.

Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has introduced legislation that would amend the Tax Code to disqualify movie and TV producers from receiving tax credits from the federal government if any of the production is done outside the United States.

The House passed three pieces of legislation Wednesday aimed at limiting the authority of the Internal Revenue Service in response to scandals involving the extra scrutiny given to political groups applying for tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations.

If it seems impossible to amass a fortune in an IRA during your lifetime, think again.

About 9,000 U.S. taxpayers have each accumulated at least $5 million in individual retirement accounts, said the Government Accountability Office, raising questions about some investors’ tax-advantaged returns.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to address the uncertainty about dozens of expired tax breaks and about-to-expire breaks that could complicate next tax season for practitioners.

An industry group is urging the House to postpone a vote on legislation that would scale back Securities and Exchange Commission requirements for companies to file their financial statements using Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, technology.