Tax

The National Association of Bond Lawyers wants the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to revise the management contract guidance released in August, which it says is confusing and could limit the usefulness of safe harbors in short-term contacts.

WASHINGTON – Capping the tax exemption for municipal bonds over a nine-year period would have cost state and local governments roughly $175 billion in additional borrowing costs, while a full repeal would have cost them nearly $500 billion more, state and local officials warned Tuesday.

The Treasury Department is still working to finalize regulations on issue price by the end of the calendar year, a Treasury official told The Bond Buyer this week.

The IRS has sent auditors new procedures for information document requests sent to issuers.

Republicans this week said they are working toward a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through March 31 instead of a full-year appropriations bill, a decision that disappointed Democrats and several GOP members.

Rebecca Harrigal, the first female director of the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Tax Exempt Bonds, will leave her post at the agency next month to join a law firm.

The city of Mobile, Ala., has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of money to the Internal Revenue Service to maintain the tax-exempt standing of $63.4 million of general obligation refunding and improvement warrants it issued in 2006.

Issuers, borrowers, and MAs disagree that they violated state and local government series securities (SLGS) rules.

President-elect Donald Trump’s ambitious infrastructure plan and proposed widespread tax cuts will require issuers to adjust to a changing economic climate to maintain credit stability, S&P Global Ratings said Monday.

Donald Trump's plans to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act and impose a moratorium on new regulations could affect the municipal bond market.