Tax

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is asking the Internal Revenue Service to modify or withdraw a memorandum about defeasances of Build America Bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service is asserting that $25.42 million of bonds, which were issued by the California Statewide Communities Development Authority in 2005 and benefit the Sweetwater Union High School District, are taxable private-activity bonds.

The Municipal Bonds for America coalition has sent a letter in support of the tax exemption for municipal bonds to the co-chairs of a Senate Finance Committee tax-reform working group.

Reps. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., are asking their colleagues to sign a letter urging House leaders to support the tax-exemption for municipal bonds.

Repealing the tax exemption for private-activity bonds would provide revenue to help pay for lowering corporate tax rates, a Congressional Research Service specialist testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a favorable private-letter ruling to an issuer who planned to issue governmental and private-activity bonds to finance improvements to water facilities.

A $35.4 million issue of revenue bonds for a private detention center in Central Texas will retain tax-exempt status following a review by the Internal Revenue Service, according to a disclosure notice.

The Conroe Industrial Development Corporation in Texas has requested a settlement under the Internal Revenue Service's voluntary closing agreement program to resolve a tax violation relating to bonds it issued in 2008 and 2012.

A tax-reform agreement has to be done by the end of the summer or it will not happen during this Congress, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Friday.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved a bill to make the state and local sales tax deduction permanent.

Bipartisan bills on empowerment zone bonds and the ban on new Internet access taxes have recently been introduced in the Senate.

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that bond lawyers said would be helpful for nonprofit organizations.

Two former Senators who were instrumental in tax reform in 1986 said reform should be comprehensive and presidential commitment is very helpful.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced how many qualified zone academy bonds can be issued in each state, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories for 2014.

The tax exemption for general purpose state and local debt has consistently been one of the biggest corporate tax expenditures since 1975, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

An issuer in Virginia recently disclosed an Internal Revenue Service audit of bonds it issued in 2006, and a borrower in Indiana and an issuer in Pennsylvania disclosed that the IRS has closed audits of their bonds.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said he hopes Congress and the Obama administration can work in a bipartisan way to authorize qualified public infrastructure bonds or another type of bond program.

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking applications from issuers for unused volume cap of new clean renewable energy bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently closed two audits of bonds issued in Colorado with no change to the bonds' tax-exempt statuses.

Reps. John Duncan, R-Tenn., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., have once again sponsored legislation to exempt water and sewer private-activity bonds from state volume caps.