Tax regulations

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland claim the state and local tax deduction is essential to prevent federal tax powers from interfering with constitutionally guaranteed state rights.

The proposed rules would clarify that an institutional investor could take part in a public-private partnership for a bond-financed project without making the bonds taxable.

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.

GAO says Congress should consider giving SEC penalty authority over issuers, stripping Puerto Rico's triple-tax exemption,and expanding investor protection.

Vicky Tsilas, who most recently headed branch 5 in the IRS chief counsel’s office for more than a year and a half, was involved in numerous rulemakings and guidance for municipal bonds.

It's important and constructive to talk about these kinds of alternatives to advance refundings, market participants said.

The new tax law that terminated advance refundings of bonds after Dec. 31, 2017, does not specify that only "tax exempt" refundings are prohibited.

NABL favors shortening to seven from 14 days the advance notice requirement for a public hearing about the issuance of PABs.

Banks have a range of options to calculate "gross-up" provisions on direct placement bonds, which allow them to maintain their after-tax yield after this year's cut in corporate tax rates.

Many provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are punitive to tax exempt healthcare.

IRS muni regulatory priorities for 2018 include rules on bond reissuance and final rules on notice and approval of private activity bond-financed projects under TEFRA.

President Trump’s call for $1 trillion in federal public infrastructure investment appears to have foundered, even as the national debt has accelerated, posing increased threats to the cost of state and local financing of public infrastructure.

It continues to be up to issuers and other beneficiaries of municipal bonds to raise awareness of the negative effect of the proposed tax reform legislation -- but time is running out.

As the political gears churn, issuers and borrowers should huddle with legal counsel and financial advisors to consider the possibility of worst-case scenarios in which some or all of the proposed tax reform legislation is enacted.

The Senate is debating its own separate plan, and it isn’t yet clear the chamber will have enough votes to pass it.

Smaller hospitals and colleges and affordable-housing developers will be more challenged in distributing their bonds under proposed tax reforms.

IRS said its new deadlines for claims were “in the interest of sound tax administration.’’

GFOA says the political subdivision rule would “add extensive and additional federal requirements.''