Naomi Jagoda

The Internal Revenue Service has either resolved tax issues or closed audits with no changes to bonds in New Jersey, Louisiana, and Nassau County, N.Y., according to event notices filed on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA system.

Federal subsidy payments to issuers of Build America Bonds and other direct-pay bonds will be cut by 7.2% under Congressionally-mandated sequestration in fiscal year 2014, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Reform to the tax-exemption on municipal bond interest could be a benefit or a burden for lower-income individuals, depending on how state and local governments would respond to higher borrowing costs, according to a paper from the Tax Policy Center.

There are likely to be "more severe" financial market and economic consequences if Congress fails to raise the debt limit than if Congress fails to avoid a government shutdown, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service.

At a panel on tax issues here, Rebecca Harrigal laid out what she described as something of a "hit list of first items to look at" when she becomes the director of the IRS' tax-exempt bonds division next month.

The Nebraska Public Power District has agreed to pay $350,000 to the Internal Revenue Service to settle a tax law dispute regarding $50.36 million of Build America Bonds it issued in 2009.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to release more streamlined resolution standards in October that provide penalties for certain types of bond-related tax violations that issuers report under the IRS' voluntary closing agreement program.

WASHINGTON — Existing home sales rose 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted 5.48 million-unit rate in August from a unrevised 5.39 million pace the previous month, the National Association of Realtors announced Thursday.

2015 remains the year most members of the Federal Reserve board members and bank presidents expect monetary policy tightening, according to the Fed's latest summary of economic projections released Wednesday.

The Fed will continue open-ended programs to purchase longer-term Treasuries at a rate of $45 billion per month and mortgage-backed securities at a rate of $40 billion per month, the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement released Wednesday following the FOMC's two-day meeting.

Industrial production rose 0.4% in August after having been unchanged the previous month, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.

Indiana Secondary Market for Education Loans, Inc. entered into a voluntary closing agreement with the Internal Revenue Service over $221.65 million of student loan bonds issued from 2001 through 2004. Under the agreement, the issuer made a payment to the IRS and redeemed all outstanding bonds.

The federal government ran a $147.9 billion deficit in August, the Treasury reported Thursday.

Moody's Investors Service expects an increase in toll roads and toll-supported projects, the ratings agency said in a report.

Reforms to the tax-exemption of municipal bonds should be "careful and deliberative, particularly in how they treat previously-issued debt," a report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said.

Most local governments have limited control over their pension liabilities because they have cost-sharing plans where pension funding, benefit decisions and investment strategies are centrally managed, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report examining the U.S. public pension landscape.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, has introduced a bill that would expand leasing for offshore oil and gas drilling and allow the Treasury Department to use the revenue to issue bonds, the proceeds of which would eventually go into the highway trust fund and state revolving loan funds.

The congressionally-mandated sequestration could take about $60 million of income and sales tax revenue from the District of Columbia's economy and cause the city to lose about $30 million in federal grants and payments in fiscal 2014, district officials said Tuesday.

Evidence suggests that declining per capita driving rates in recent years cannot be dismissed as a temporary byproduct of the Great Recession, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund found in a study released Thursday.

Personal income rose $14.1 billion or 0.1% in July following a unrevised 0.3% increase in June, the Commerce Department reported Friday.