Tax

States are having trouble forecasting tax revenue largely because of increasing volatility in their revenues, according to a report released by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government on Tuesday.

Three more Midwestern issuers have said that they can redeem Build America Bonds issued in 2010 because their subsidy payments from the federal government have been reduced due to sequestration.

Two issuers in Colorado and one in Pennsylvania have recently disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service is auditing some of their refunding and/or single-family mortgage bonds.

Crystal City, Texas has reached an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to settle tax rule violations and preserve the tax-exempt status of interest already paid on $13.94 million of jail bonds issued by an authority in 2003 and now in default.

The discussion in Washington D.C. about corporate inversions has implications for the municipal bond market, a Treasury Department official told bond lawyers meeting here.

The Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office is modifying its market-segment approach to audits, the office's director, Rebecca Harrigal, said.

Partnerships between governmental or nonprofit entities and private entities should be treated favorably under private-activity bond and 501(c)(3) bond rules, the National Association of Bond Lawyers argued.

The Village Center Community Development District in Florida, whose status as a political subdivision that can issue tax-exempt bonds has been disputed, is planning to price three issues of taxable refunding bonds next week.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has many ongoing projects, including completing an analysis of the long-term implications of a self-reporting disclosure enforcement program, commenting on the SEC's 2012 municipal market report, and providing regulators with its views on tax issues, said its incoming president Antonio "Tony" Martini.

A Treasury Department official, a former Federal Reserve Board chair, congressional staffers and state treasurers spoke at an industry-sponsored municipal securities conference on Thursday that was closed to the press.

The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has introduced legislation that would continue funding government programs and services until Dec. 11, preventing a federal government shutdown before the midterm elections.

The Treasury Department's 2014-2015 priority guidance plan includes new projects to both update guidance on management contracts that impact private-activity bonds, and ensure PAB rules don't conflict with a new type of arrangement promoted by President Obama's health care reform law.

An issuer of tax-exempt bonds and Build America Bonds can reallocate its proceeds, the Internal Revenue Service ruled.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing bonds issued in 2011 for a charter school operator in Chicago that settled securities fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June.

Oregon, which invented the gasoline tax in 1919, is on the road to be the first state to shift to a mileage-based user fee for highway funding.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance to provide temporary relief from some tax requirements for bond-financed qualified residential rental projects in the event of a presidentially-declared major disaster.

Municipal bond broker-dealer groups have spent nearly $5 million trying to influence federal lawmakers in recent months, using in-house lobbyists as well as outside firms and campaign contributions to promote their positions on securities laws, tax reform, and regulation.

Personal income taxes and possibly all state taxes appear to be down in the second quarter of this year based on preliminary data, the Rockefeller Institute of Government of the State University of New York said in a report released Thursday.

The Fannin County Public Facility Corp. in Texas has settled tax law violations with the Internal Revenue Service by agreeing to pay $1.75 million and redeem all of the outstanding bonds from the $30.78 million it issued in 2008 to finance a jail.

Susan Collet, who until recently worked at the Bond Dealers of America, is launching her own government-relations advisory firm focused on municipal securities, tax policy and not-for-profit electric utilities.