Tax

A bill introduced in the House earlier this month would renew empowerment zone and renewal community designations, allowing certain areas to be eligible again for tax incentives including empowerment zone facility bonds and qualified zone academy bonds.

A bill introduced in the Senate that would provide tax relief for major disaster areas designated as such in 2012 and 2013 has several bond provisions, including one that would allow state and local governments to issue qualified disaster area recovery bonds.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in Kentucky expects to competitively sell about $61.71 million of bonds on April 22 in order to redeem $60.47 million of Build America Bonds that it issued in 2010, an issuer official said.

Total private-activity bond issuance for the five years from 2007 through 2011 was $273.35 billion, with bonds for hospitals, colleges and other nonprofits that meet certain criteria making up more than half of that amount, a tax committee staffer told Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Mich.

Leaders on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee said they reached an agreement on principles for a surface transportation reauthorization bill and suggested funding could be raised through tax reform.

The Build America Bond program would be permanently revived with lower subsidy rates and without issuers being hurt by sequestration cuts, under a bill recently introduced in the Senate.

The Senate Finance Committee Thursday passed a bill that extends a number of expired and expiring tax provisions, including some related to bonds, state and local governments, and Puerto Rico.

Municipal market participants should be concerned about the House Republican fiscal 2015 budget plan unveiled by Rep. Paul Ryan on Tuesday because it calls for substantially lowering the individual and corporate tax rates, which would put at risk many tax expenditures such as the tax exemption for municipal bonds, several muni experts said.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden has proposed a bill to extend roughly 47 expired and expiring tax provisions, including four relating to bonds, governments, and Puerto Rico. Sens. Wyden and Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the committee, have scheduled a vote on the proposed extender legislation for Thursday.

The National Association of Local Housing Finance Authorities has told House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp in a letter that it opposes the provisions in his tax-reform plan that eliminate tools used to finance affordable homeownership and rental housing.

Bond lawyers need to be realistic and acknowledge that there will be changes to the existing issue price rules, the chair of a panel at a conference said.

For yet another year, uncertainty surrounding the potential loss or cap of the municipal tax exemption concerned panelists at the National Municipal Bond Summit.

A Treasury Department official told bond lawyers to view the municipal bond provisions in House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp's tax reform plan as a "scorecard of revenue offsets" that can be used in other tax proposals.

The Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners has authorized the potential refinancing of $59.6 million of Build America Bonds issued in 2010 because the subsidy payments to the issuer have been reduced due to sequestration.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said that he plans for the committee to work to determine which tax provisions that expired at the end of last year should be made permanent.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service are seeking recommendations for items that should be included on the 2014-2015 priority guidance plan.

State treasurers need to explain to Congress how the Joint Committee on Taxation's estimated cost of the tax exemption for municipal bonds is problematic, a leading muni expert said.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore. wants the committee to vote early next month on legislation that would renew tax provisions that expired at the end of last year, a committee spokeswoman said.

The Internal Revenue Service rejected requests by bond issuers for two affiliated Iowa nonprofits to enter voluntary closing agreements, saying that certain alleged tax-law violations were unlikely to have occurred.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has asked Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service officials for a meeting to discuss the proposed rules on issue price.