Tax

The House Appropriations Committee has unveiled a fiscal year 2015 bill that would fund the Securities and Exchange Commission at $1.4 billion - $50 million above the fiscal year 2014 level and $300 million below President Obama's budget request.

The Internal Revenue Service has determined in an audit that general obligation bonds issued in 2007 and 2009 by the Sierra Kings Health Care District in California are private-activity bonds and not tax-exempt governmental bonds.

The director of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office will discuss new initiatives and updates at an audio webcast next week.

Recently released Treasury Department regulations that revise the standards practitioners follow when giving tax advice make the standards more flexible and less burdensome, bond lawyers said.

Carla A. Young, a former shareholder at Greenberg Traurig and Internal Revenue Service official, has joined Nixon Peabody as a tax partner in its public finance group.

Two more Ohio school districts have disclosed they are authorized to redeem BABs they issued in 2010 because of reduced subsidy payments due to sequestration.

A report released by the chair of the Senate Budget Committee argues that tax reform should raise revenue by cutting tax expenditures that mostly benefit the wealthy.

A New York issuer has applied for relief under the Internal Revenue Service's voluntary closing agreement program so that tax-law violations relating to bonds issued for New York Medical College in 1998 can be settled.

The Internal Revenue Service has extended by two years the period in which an education nonprofit can spend the proceeds of qualified school construction bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office is arguing that the technical advice memorandum on the Village Center Community Development District in Florida should be applied retroactively.

A panel that advises the Internal Revenue Service will present reports next month, including one from the committee's tax-exempt bonds team on the treatment of management contracts.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $26.56 million of first mortgage revenue and refunding bonds issued in 2008 by Lakeland, Fla. to help the nonprofit, Carpenter’s Home Estates, Inc., finance the expansion of a continuing care retirement community.

Now is the time for state and local finance officers to advocate for preserving the tax-exemption for municipal bonds, even though federal tax reform is highly unlikely to happen this year, market group officials said at the Government Finance Officers Association's annual conference here.

Identical bills recently introduced in the House and the Senate would create a federal "Green Bank" that would be capitalized by bonds issued by the Treasury Department and would provide loans and other types of financing support for clean-energy and energy-efficiency projects.

Bond lawyers said that there needs to be clarity about the definition of a political subdivision in light of an Internal Revenue Service ruling from last year.

The Internal Revenue Service has asked some issuers to pay back part of the subsidy payments for their direct-pay bonds because the wrong sequestration reduction rate was used to determine the payment amount, said Rebecca Harrigal, the director of the IRS’ tax-exempt bond office.

Two Midwestern issuers have disclosed that they will redeem Build America Bonds in early June because their subsidy payments have been reduced due to sequestration.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers urged the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to provide guidance in the coming year on matters ranging from President Obama's health care reform law to the definition of a political subdivision.

The Bellefontaine City School District in Ohio has disclosed that it intends to redeem some or all of the $14.19 million of Build America Bonds it issued in 2010 because of reduced subsidy payments due to sequestration.

The Berea City School District in Ohio said that it can redeem $12.87 million of series 2009B certificates of participation designated as Build America Bonds because its subsidy payments were reduced due to sequestration.