Peter Schroeder

A wastewater plant built by a pharmaceutical company with exempt facility bonds does not violate tax laws or rules because the waste’s acidity level has to be neutralized before it can be sent to a public treatment facility, the Internal Revenue Service ruled.

Efforts to extend the Build America Bonds program and other temporary bond provisions enacted as part of last year's stimulus act took a major step backwards last week when Senate Democrats tabled the tax package including the extensions after yet another failed procedural vote.

WASHINGTON – Extensions to the Build America Bond program and other expiring bond provisions in last year’s stimulus law took a major step backward Thursday night, after Senate Democrats shelved a tax package following another failed procedural vote.

WASHINGTON — Officials at two nonprofit hospitals have warned the Internal Revenue Service that new requirements imposed on bond-financed and 501(c)(3) hospitals by this year’s health care insurance overhaul would be burdensome and costly.

WASHINGTON — Proposed extensions to major bond provisions have survived several revisions of pending tax legislation, but municipal market participants are wondering if more controversial, non-bond provisions could scuttle the entire package.

The Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit of $119.2 million of student loan bonds issued by the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority with no change to the tax-exempt status of the debt.

WASHINGTON — A two-year extension to the Build America Bonds program, as well as extensions to a handful of other bond provisions set to expire at the end of the year, remain in legislative limbo as Senate Democratic leaders this week continue attempts to produce a tax bill that they can pass.

WASHINGTON — A Republican proposal that would have allowed the Build America Bond program to expire at the end of the year was defeated yesterday, as Senate lawmakers continued working toward passing legislation to extend several expiring tax breaks, including for BABs.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have proposed an alternative bill to extend expiring tax-law provisions that would not include Build America Bonds, a major difference from pending legislation, which would extend the BAB program by two years while gradually reducing its subsidy rate to 30% from 35%.

The Treasury Department should issue guidance on the definition of issue price for Build America Bonds and proceed with 10 other regulatory projects on a priority basis, the National Association of Bond Lawyers told department officials in a recent letter.

WASHINGTON — The federal government should make tribal economic development bonds a permanent tool for Indian tribes and should consider raising or removing the current $2 billion ceiling on the program given the clear demand that exists for the bonds, an advisory committee said in a report sent to the Internal Revenue Service this week.

ATLANTA — The head of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office said yesterday that it’s premature for issuers to focus on the number of Build America Bond audits the IRS will conduct because the office is still gathering as much information about BABs as possible and ultimately wants to devote its energies to finding true abuses in the muni market.

ATLANTA — A Treasury Department official Monday said that federal regulators already have attempted to assuage muni market participants’ worries about how to determine issue price for Build America Bonds in guidance issued in April, even though issuers continue to air concerns about the lack of guidance.

WASHINGTON — A consulting firm has warned the Treasury Department that interim guidance it released in March might force small school districts to obtain Cusip numbers for their tax-credit bonds even if the issuer has no intention of ever stripping the tax credit from the bonds and selling it separately.

The Internal Revenue Service closed an audit of $61.3 million of revenue bonds issued in 2005 by the Coastal Bend Health Facilities Development Corp. of Corpus Christi, Tex., and has determined the debt can remain tax-exempt.

WASHINGTON — The recovery zone bond program would double in size to $50 billion and Build America Bonds could be used to do current refundings of existing BABs under a new tax and jobs bill released late Thursday evening by leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees.

WASHINGTON — Leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees yesterday planned to unveil legislation that would temporarily extend the Build America Bond program as well as several other municipal bond provisions set to expire at the end of the year.

WASHINGTON – Leaders of the House and Senate taxwriting committees are expected today to introduce jobs and extenders legislation that would extend the Build America bonds program for two years, until the end of 2012, and gradually lower the subsidy to 30%.

Two bond-issuing authorities in Virginia entered into a voluntary closing agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to preserve the status of $74.3 million of bonds after one of them sold its waste-to-energy facilities, which were financed with the bonds, to Wheelabrator Portsmouth Inc.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has closed its audit of $161.3 million of variable-rate demand student housing revenue bonds issued by the Payne County, Okla., Economic Development Authority in 2002 with no change to the tax-exempt status of the debt.