Tax-exempt bonds

A call to action for the $4 trillion municipal bond market.

It's the second try for the bill, which Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., first introduced in 2021.

While some reliable options have emerged, market professionals remain hopeful the old advance refunding will return before the desire to bring it back loses any momentum.

With around 30% of bonds trading near the de minimis threshold, a new study takes a deep dive into how the rule drives illiquidity as mutual funds dump paper that's approaching the threshold.

The agency has already begun hiring new staff and preparing for an $80 billion dollar agencywide influx of funding.

Issuers should expect to see an increased presence of IRS agents as the service's Tax-Exempt Bond office completes a round of hiring and the IRS budget grows.

Partisan politics is playing a larger role in public finance, flaring up into bickering more often than in the past.

Vern Buchanan appears to lead the way, but recent moves by Jason Smith to appeal to more GOP leaders make the race for chair of the Ways and Means Committee a tight one.

Municipal market participants are gaming out post-election scenarios that pose opportunities and risks for budgets and portfolios.  

The dispute now includes an appeal over a ruling about documents not returned after a FOIA request.