Peter Schroeder

The Indian Wells, Calif., Redevelopment Agency disclosed late Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service has initiated an audit of $68 million of tax-allocation bonds it competitively sold in 2006.

WASHINGTON — The top lawyer for the House’s tax-writing committee said yesterday that it is a given the Build America Bonds program will be extended beyond its current deadline at the end of 2010 and that there is a strong argument for it to be made permanent as soon as possible.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department Friday rejected a proposal for Fannie Mae to sell $2.6 billion, or roughly half, of its unused low-income housing tax credits to two unidentified investors believed to be Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

WASHINGTON — The American Bar Association Section of Taxation sent a report to Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service officials last week outlining its thoughts on various issues tied to stripping the tax credits from tax-credit bonds and selling them separately.

WASHINGTON — Michael Mundaca, President Obama’s nominee to become the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary of tax policy, told the Senate Finance Committee yesterday that the Build America Bonds program is “too successful to simply allow it to expire.”

WASHINGTON — Treasury Department officials are warning state and local housing finance agencies that the Obama administration’s recently unveiled temporary bond purchase program is oversubscribed and that agencies will likely receive less assistance than they requested as a result.

WASHINGTON — A large local school district that cannot issue the qualified school construction bonds the Internal Revenue Service allocated to it will lose the allocation unless it transfers it to the state, which can then carry it forward indefinitely, an IRS attorney said last week.

A major component of the compliance questionnaire the Internal Revenue Service plans to send to issuers of Build America Bonds will examine how issuers are complying with the rule that all BAB project proceeds go towards capital expenditures, an IRS official said here Friday.

PHOENIX — Any state or local government that issues Build America Bonds in the next fiscal year can expect to receive a compliance query from the Internal Revenue Service, according to Clifford Gannett, director of its tax-exempt bond office.

WASHINGTON — What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, the municipal market was being tossed about in the throes of an historic financial maelstrom that ultimately swallowed up the likes of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns & Co., and muni bond insurers’ triple-A ratings.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department yesterday announced that it had allocated $2.2 billion in clean renewable energy bond authority to finance 805 projects by public power providers, cooperative electric companies, and governmental entities.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $61.3 million of auction-rate securities issued in 2005 by the Coastal Bend Health Facilities Development Corp. of Corpus Christi, Tex.

Fitch Ratings plans to weigh several factors unique to qualified school construction bonds, but will still approach the securities in basically the same way it handles traditional tax-exempt offerings, the agency said in a report to be issued today.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has determined that bonds issued by a university medical school to finance or refinance items used by a nonprofit hospital are considered obligations of a state governmental unit and therefore tax-exempt, the IRS said in a private-letter ruling released this week.

Maple Grove, Minn., has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service has initiated an audit of $53.8 million of bonds it issued in 2005 to finance renovations and construction to two health care facilities.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s Inspector general for tax administration has found the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office cannot determine if states are complying with volume cap limits for private-activity bonds.

The National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies sent an “urgent appeal” to the Obama administration last week asking it to quickly announce a long-expected $35 billion bond purchase and liquidity program, warning that a rapidly approaching deadline could drastically limit the program’s effectiveness if it is not unveiled soon.

WASHINGTON — Federal lawmakers from Texas are pushing for the Treasury Department to change tax rules that are forcing the state’s school districts to forego, or pay more for, the bond financing of infrastructure projects because they cannot access the Texas Permanent School Fund’s bond guarantee program.

The Senate Finance Committee yesterday voted 14 to 9 to approve its version of a health care reform package, which would place increased reporting requirements on bond-financed and other nonprofit 501(c)(3) hospitals.

Members of Congress and an administration official said last week that the empowerment zone program, which offers tax incentives to attract private businesses to distressed communities, should be extended beyond its Dec. 31 deadline. But some business leaders said parts of the program are overly restrictive and could be improved.