Tax

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday in his inaugural speech as Senate Minority Leader that he hopes for more direct spending in President-elect Donald Trump's proposed $1 trillion infrastructure plan.

Nearly three-quarters of state pension plans and more than half of local plans cut benefits and/or raised employee contributions to combat rising employer costs in the five years following the financial crisis, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College said Tuesday.

While most muni market participants agree that 2017 could be the year of comprehensive tax reform, they have mixed views on whether the muni exemption is safe under the tax proposals of President-Elect Donald Trump and House Republicans.

States will have a modest increase in their capacity to issue private activity bonds in 2017, based on data from the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Senate Finance Committee Democratic staff sends colleagues a memo detailing problems with the Republican Blueprint for tax reform.

Calculations of the impact on municipal yields of tax rate cuts are a simplification of how prices are set in bond markets and should not be relied upon.

Scottsdale settles dispute with IRS with payment of almost $751,000 and its authority settles claims with bond counsel for $75,000.

U.S. mayors and other municipal market participants are stepping up pressure on Congress to maintain the tax exemption on municipal bonds, after President-elect Donald Trump said he supports the tax break that they say is crucial for funding infrastructure projects.

Otero County, N.M. disclosed the IRS said its bonds did not comply with tax requirements.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $55 million of general obligation limited tax water reclamation bonds that were issued in 2007 by the Clark County, Nev. Water Reclamation District.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Richard Neal, a long-time supporter of municipal bonds, was named ranking minority member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee on Friday.

Two Democrats who have some experience with municipal bonds, one much more so than the other, are vying to replace Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., as ranking minority member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee that will play a key role in tax reform efforts.

The Internal Revenue Service notified the Judson Independent School District near San Antonio that the district’s $240.8 million of 2007 bonds were the subject of a routine audit.

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.