Jennifer DePaul

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is suggesting that the Internal Revenue Service revisit the methodology used to calculate adjusted applicable federal rates for tax-exempt bonds.

The U.S. faces several significant challenges in the water and wastewater sectors including aging infrastructure, a water supply-demand imbalance and an unsustainable funding gap, a new Ernst and Young report found.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to develop guidance on the definition of issue price for tax-exempt bonds and private business use tests for accountable care organizations.

The eleven House Ways and Means Committee tax reform working groups will begin presentations next week to the full committee based on their findings and suggestions to change the tax code, congressional sources said.

The Internal Revenue Service has told a Florida Congressman that the agency will not be providing guidance on political subdivisions that would affect community development districts in the state.

Absent any policy changes, state and local governments will face an increasing gap between receipts and expenditures in future years, a new Government Accountability Office report concluded.

Abstract: Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., ranking minority member on the House Budget Committee, is worried there will be a replay of the 2011 debt limit debacle this year, which compromised the credit rating of the U.S. for the first time in history and halted sales of state and local government series securities for municipal bond issuers.

There were 207 rating changes in the first quarter of 2013, of which 83% were downgrades, a new Moody's Investors Service report found.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced late Thursday that an agreement has been reached on the Marketplace Fairness Act and a final vote will be scheduled for the week of May 6.

For the first time ever, state and local governments' contribution to national gross domestic product is still negative three years after a recession has passed its low point, the Tax Policy Center found in a new report.

Two groups are urging House Ways and Means Committee members to preserve low income housing tax credits and tax-exempt housing bond programs as they consider comprehensive tax reform.

Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., has introduced a new bill that would make permanent qualified school construction bonds and qualified zone academy bonds as part of his Rebuilding America's School Act.

The Congressional Budget Office has scored the online sales tax bill pending in the Senate and found that it would have not have any impact on the federal budget or impose costs on state, local or tribal governments.

The Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit without changing the tax exempt status of $52 million of sales tax revenue bonds the Cleveland County, Okla., Justice Authority issued in 2009.

State tax revenues increased 5.2% in the fourth quarter of 2012, but it should not be a cause for celebration, analysts warned in a Rockefeller Institute of Government report Wednesday.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., will not seek reelection in 2014.

The Obama administration released a policy statement on Monday afternoon strongly supporting the online sales tax bill just two hours before a planned Senate cloture vote on whether to limit debate on the measure.

SIFMA urged a House Ways and Means tax reform working group to leave municipal bonds alone and warned that tax credit bonds as an alternative are not an effective option.

The National Retail Federation sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Friday urging him and other Senators to vote in favor of an online sales tax bill.

Deficit hawks Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson have released a new, modified deficit reduction plan that would cut $5.2 trillion from deficits over the next decade and raise revenues in part by capping the value of tax exemption and other exclusions.