Naomi Jagoda

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $473.05 million of general obligation refunding bonds issued by Nevada’s Clark County School District in 2007.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel warned Thursday that Congress and the Executive Branch should not hurt two federal loan programs for infrastructure: the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing programs.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors plans to be aggressive about making sure the tax exemption for municipal bonds is protected, the group’s president told reporters and others here on Wednesday.

A Senate Democratic energy bill would create a new type of tax-advantaged bond called Clean Energy Bonds which would have lower subsidy rates than New Clean Renewable Energy Bonds would not be subject to volume cap.

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service should create guidance to facilitate the development of public-private partnerships, the tax-exempt financing committee of the American Bar Association’s taxation section recommended.

A lengthy tax relief and job creation bill recently introduced in the House would exempt private-activity bonds issued from 2015 through 2018 from the alternative minimum tax, repeal sequestration, and create an infrastructure bank. But it also would cap the value of the municipal bond tax exemption at 28%.

Congress needs to raise the debt limit before Nov. 5, the date around when the Treasury Department is expected to exhaust the “extraordinary measures” it has been using to preserve the U.S. borrowing capacity, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told lawmakers.

Half of the Internal Revenue Service tax-exempt bond office’s resources in fiscal 2016 will be allocated to examinations, and priority will be given to referrals, including those from whistleblowers, according to a work plan summary.

The House and Senate approved a measure on Wednesday that would avert a federal government shutdown and fund federal departments and programs through Dec. 11.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump released his tax reform proposal on Monday and grabbed the attention of municipal market participants because it would lower tax rates and reduce or eliminate tax deductions and loopholes for the rich.

The Internal Revenue Service has determined that industrial development bonds issued by the city of Minneapolis in 2006 for a printing-facility project are taxable.

The IAH Public Facility Corp. has reached a proposed settlement with the Internal Revenue Service to resolve a tax-law dispute relating to about $49 million of bonds it issued in 2004 and 2006 to finance a jail in Polk County, Texas.

The Internal Revenue Service chief counsel’s office has issued a technical advice memorandum that was favorable to an issuer of advance refunding bonds.

While the issue price rules proposed by the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service in June are a “significant improvement” over those proposed in 2013, the alternative method for determining issue price under the recent proposal is currently “not workable,” the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association wrote.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is urging Congress to not consider extending or making permanent the moratorium on state and local governments taxing Internet access unless it does so at the same time as or after it considers legislation that would allow states to require out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes.

The American College of Bond Counsel has elected officers and directors for the coming year.

The Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office expects to close about 120 voluntary closing agreements in fiscal 2015 – a figure that would be more than double the 51 closed the previous year, an IRS official said.

Market participants expressed some criticisms of the alternative method for determining issue price under rules proposed in June and said it was unlikely to be used very often.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service hope to release guidance projects on political subdivisions and allocation and accounting rules this fall, Treasury associate tax legislative counsel John Cross told bond lawyers meeting here.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $91 million of Build America Bonds issued by the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority in fall 2010.