Tax reform

Gregory Gizzi, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Macquarie Investment Management, looks at the effects of tax reform on municipal bond market this year. He also discusses what investors should look for in the second half of the year. Chip Barnett hosts.

An "anemic" first quarter gave way to a much stronger second quarter for the muni market, SIFMA found.

The Trump administration’s effort to publish a proposed rule comes just over two months after the IRS announced May 23 it was working on the regulations to enforce the $10,000 cap on what previously was an unlimited personal deduction of state and local taxes, also known as SALT.

Tax Reform 2.0 would make permanent the lower individual tax rates in last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that are scheduled to expire in 2025.

The plan for a second tax reform bill is galvanizing municipal market groups to step up lobbying efforts to tout the importance and benefits of munis to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The 1.2-percentage point reduction will amount to $12,000 in saving on a $1 million tax settlement.

The loss of the SALT deduction cost New Yorkers an additional $14.3 billion in 2018, state Attorney General Barbara Underwood told the Citizens Budget Commission.

George Callas most recently was senior tax counsel to House Speaker Paul Ryan and was a chief architect of the tax reform legislation enacted in December.

Tax accountants, financial advisors, private schools, and other organizations are advertising tax credits for donating to private K-12 voucher funds as ways to "sidestep," "bypass," "circumvent," or "mitigate" the impact of the federal SALT deduction cap, according to a survey.

CDFA said it is surveying local, state and multi-jurisdictional issuers about private activity bond fees in conduit transactions.

State workarounds for the new $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes may present new legal issues for the service, nominee Charles Rettig says.

U.S. Conference of Mayors President Stephen Benjamin talks about the ways to get Congress to bring back advance refundings for municipal bond issuers. The mayor of Columbia, S.C., also discusses a Smart Cities agenda that’s focused on growing cities through improved infrastructure. John Hallacy is host.

The latest Federal Reserve data shows the first decline in bank holdings of municipal securities in nearly a decade, a result of tax reform, according to experts.

The MSRB's controversial commentary about selective disclosure got some support from a top SEC official on Wednesday.

Currently at least 33 states provide 113 different tax credits that are already federally deductible.

Bond lawyer Jonathan Ballan chimes in on creative bond deals, tax-law changes, mortgage financing, mass transit and his recent move to Cozen O’Connor. He also makes a heartfelt plea for municipal and political leaders to weigh in and help “stop the carnage” from the opioid crisis. Paul Burton hosts.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are the first states to have created charitable funds that taxpayers can contribute to in order to claim a charitable deduction in lieu of paying state and local taxes.

The IRS notice warns that federal law, not state law, controls how payments for federal income tax purposes are characterized.

Rising short-term rates and a lower corporate tax rate have already pushed some municipal issuers out of bank loans and back into the traditional muni space, analysts said.

Bruising political fights over Obamacare and tax reform may have killed the chances for Trump's infrastructure plan, leaving state and local governments to lead the way.