Tax

The National Council of State Housing Agencies is urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to include several items on its 2015-2016 priority guidance plan that would help state agencies effectively administer housing bond programs.

The internal Revenue Service’s tax exempt bond office will hold a webinar on qualified school construction bonds next month.

An issuer’s fare revenues for bus service along privately operated highway lanes would not cause bonds to be used to finance the lanes to be private-activity bonds, the Internal Revenue Service ruled.

The tax-exempt financing committee of the American Bar Association's taxation section is working on a paper that will identify for tax regulators modifications to tax rules that could facilitate public-private partnerships.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing general obligation refunding bonds issued in 2006 by the Clark County School District in Nevada.

The authors of a new paper from The Hamilton Project at Brookings propose four short-term and three long-term ways to address the need for infrastructure investment in the United States, including a revival of the Build America Bond program.

The Internal Revenue Service should withdraw or alter a controversial 2013 memorandum relating to the definition a political subdivision, provide interim guidance, and propose new rules that apply prospectively, the tax-exempt financing committee of American Bar Association's taxation section said.

Warning the Internal Revenue Service that its proposed issue price rules would disrupt the muni bond marketplace, increase regulatory complexity, and drive up compliance and borrowing costs, Bond Dealers of America is proposing that the agency instead make modest changes to its current rules and then enforce them.

Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., has reintroduced legislation that would increase the annual issuance limit for issuers of bank-qualified bonds to $30 million from $10 million.

House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan is working on a "limited tax reform" package that could contain revenue for the Highway Trust Fund and extenders and that could be passed this summer.

Dozens of municipal market groups made the case for preserving tax-exempt bond financing and/or easing certain bond restrictions in documents submitted to the Senate Finance Committee’s tax-reform working groups.

An Internal Revenue Service memorandum that would render a community development district's bonds taxable should not be retroactive because a House committee last year urged guidance on political subdivisions be prospective, the CDD's lawyer said.

Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., has introduced a bill that would create more flexible standards under which research arrangements at tax-exempt bond-financed research facilities would not give rise to private-business use.

House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. John Larson considers municipal bonds to be “the lifeline of any given community.”

An authority can have additional time to spend proceeds of its qualified zone academy bonds after there were “unforeseen circumstances” such as contractor disputes, permitting delays and development plan changes, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled.

Curbs to the tax exemption for municipal bonds would increase electricity prices for public-power customers and make it less likely that infrastructure improvements would be funded, groups warned in a paper to Senate Finance Committee tax-reform working groups.

The House on Thursday passed a bill to make the state and local sales tax deduction permanent.

Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill. and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., have sent a bipartisan letter to House leaders urging them to reject proposals that make changes to the tax exemption for municipal bonds.

Lawmakers on Senate Finance Committee tax-reform working groups should preserve the tax-exemption for municipal bonds and increase the bank-qualified bond limit, the Bond Dealers of America and affiliated coalitions said.

Tax reform proposals to curb tax exemption for municipal securities would create uncertainty in the market, possibly lead to higher borrowing costs, and hurt infrastructure development, issuer and borrower groups warned a Senate Finance Committee working group this week.