Tax

It’s been five years since Connie Mack, as chair of President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, said that it would “take a fresh look at the existing Tax Code and will formulate options for making the tax system simple, fair and productive.

Vice President Joe Biden indicated that the White House could be ready to make a deal with Republicans on expanding the level of income that would qualify for the Bush tax cuts extension.

While we await the lame duck Congress to find out if and how much our taxes will rise next year, it might be well to remember that government — and the programs it loves to fund — will only keep growing until it runs out of funding. Hardly any government will willingly reduce programs, cut funding, or otherwise act within reasonable limits.

States and localities continued to raise their sales tax rates last quarter in order to generate more revenue to close their budget deficits, according to a new report.

H&R Block has filed suit against its refund anticipation loan provider, HSBC, seeking to require the bank to provide the funding for RALs and refund anticipation checks next tax season.

The worldwide decline in top personal income tax rates over the past seven years has come to an end, as this year’s average rate increased 0.3 percent globally.

While some states are now passing legislation that favors lenders, at the same time there are tantalizing federal and state tax benefits being offered to distressed homeowners who are facing foreclosure or considering short-selling.

Recently, I received a blast e-mail from a group who identified themselves as "concerned citizens" of my town. Without getting into shopworn specifics that most of you would not care about, these self-appointed monitors of fiscal prudence decried rising taxes and exhorted the local government to rescind a quasi-moratorium on development in order to generate more tax revenue.

Online bookkeeping service Outright.com has signed a partnership with H&R Block aimed at helping small-business owners deal with the increasing complexity of income taxes.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, criticized the U.S. Small Business Administration after it missed a deadline to send comments to the Treasury Department and the IRS about a controversial new 1099 reporting requirement for businesses.