Jennifer DePaul

Rebecca Harrigal is set to become the first female director of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office in October.

Tennessee has the highest combined state and local rate of 9.44%, a Tax Foundation study said Wednesday.

The federal government will exhaust all of it’s borrowing authority in mid-October and unlikely to pay all of its bills with the cash on hand, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Monday.

Despite improving local revenue growth, severe budget challenges persist at the local level, namely the unsustainable nature of defined benefit contribution plans, a Wells Fargo Securities report said Monday.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $196.94 million of revenue refunding bonds issued by East Baton Rouge, La., sewage commission in 2006.

The Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority will pay the Internal Revenue Service $13.6 million to settle a tax dispute over $219.49 million of bonds issued it in 2006.

Public pension systems showed positive earnings on investments for the second consecutive year in 2011 and exceeded prerecession levels for the first time, the Census Bureau said Thursday.

The American Public Power Association is urging lawmakers to reconsider limits placed on new clean renewable energy bonds and maintain the tax exempt status for municipal bonds.

Municipal issuers could experience a significant jump in borrowing costs and reduced access to the market if congressional and administration proposals to eliminate tax exemption are adopted, a Standard & Poor's report said.

The Internal Revenue Service sent an updated Form 5701 Notice of Proposed Issue to Florida's Village Center Community Development District this week with regard to it not being a political subdivision for tax-exempt financing purposes.

Six months after Zapata County, Texas received notification from the Internal Revenue Service, that $9.97 million of their bonds were being audited, the county is working to resolve the tax law dispute and may end up paying a settlement or refunding its bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $69.83 million of sales tax revenue refunding bonds issued by the Regional Transportation District in Colorado in 2007.

State revenues jumped 5.3% in 2013, but officials are worried that a slowdown next year is imminent, a National Conference of State Legislatures report said.

Moody's Investors Service is considering changing how it rates local government general obligation bonds to increase the weight of its analysis for debt and pension liabilities, it announced Wednesday.

Nearly a dozen Midwestern issuers have announced they can redeem their direct-pay municipal bonds because extraordinary redemption provisions have been triggered by sequestration.

Regulatory priorities for the IRS and Treasury this year and next include proposing guidance on the definition of a political subdivision for tax exempt, tax credit and direct-pay bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office will update it's Internal Revenue Manual late this fall with a section on written post-issuance compliance procedures, an official said.

Soon after a New Hampshire authority became the first issuer to withdraw from the Internal Revenue Service's voluntary closing agreement program for student loan bonds, the IRS initiated an audit of $135.4 million of adjustable rate education loan revenue bonds it issued in 2011.

The National League of Cities is helping arm issuers with informational materials about proposals to eliminate or limit the municipal bond tax exemption.

The Treasury Department agrees with Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., that 16-year-old safe harbor provisions for tax-exempt health care bonds need to be updated so they won't conflict with health care reform.