Tax

The American Public Power Association is urging lawmakers to reconsider limits placed on new clean renewable energy bonds and maintain the tax exempt status for municipal bonds.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is urging Congress to take action on several issues, including transporation funding, tax-exempt financing of water infrastructure, the federal deficit and online sales taxes.

Municipal issuers could experience a significant jump in borrowing costs and reduced access to the market if congressional and administration proposals to eliminate tax exemption are adopted, a Standard & Poor's report said.

The Internal Revenue Service sent an updated Form 5701 Notice of Proposed Issue to Florida's Village Center Community Development District this week with regard to it not being a political subdivision for tax-exempt financing purposes.

Six months after Zapata County, Texas received notification from the Internal Revenue Service, that $9.97 million of their bonds were being audited, the county is working to resolve the tax law dispute and may end up paying a settlement or refunding its bonds.

Congress should establish a national infrastructure bank and offset the appropriation for it with revenue from a one-time repatriation tax holiday, the Brookings Institution urged in a report released Thursday.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $69.83 million of sales tax revenue refunding bonds issued by the Regional Transportation District in Colorado in 2007.

State revenues jumped 5.3% in 2013, but officials are worried that a slowdown next year is imminent, a National Conference of State Legislatures report said.

Moody's Investors Service is considering changing how it rates local government general obligation bonds to increase the weight of its analysis for debt and pension liabilities, it announced Wednesday.

Nearly a dozen Midwestern issuers have announced they can redeem their direct-pay municipal bonds because extraordinary redemption provisions have been triggered by sequestration.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has announced a slate of officer and director nominees the group will vote on at NABL's annual meeting Sept. 25 in Chicago.

Baptist Health South Florida Obligated Group has agreed to pay $597,751 to settle Internal Revenue Service alleged tax rule violations and preserve the tax-exempt status of $800 million of hospital revenue bonds issued in 2007.

Regulatory priorities for the IRS and Treasury this year and next include proposing guidance on the definition of a political subdivision for tax exempt, tax credit and direct-pay bonds.

The five issuers can redeem a total of $128.44 million because sequestration-imposed cuts in the federal subsidy payments they receive triggered extraordinary redemption provisions.

The Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office will update it's Internal Revenue Manual late this fall with a section on written post-issuance compliance procedures, an official said.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing dozens of tax-exempt bond-financed jails, particularly in border states, and suggesting in some cases that, if the jails hold significant amounts of federal inmates, the bonds are no longer tax-exempt and are instead taxable private-activity bonds, sources said Thursday.

Soon after a New Hampshire authority became the first issuer to withdraw from the Internal Revenue Service's voluntary closing agreement program for student loan bonds, the IRS initiated an audit of $135.4 million of adjustable rate education loan revenue bonds it issued in 2011.

The National League of Cities is helping arm issuers with informational materials about proposals to eliminate or limit the municipal bond tax exemption.

The Treasury Department agrees with Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., that 16-year-old safe harbor provisions for tax-exempt health care bonds need to be updated so they won't conflict with health care reform.

The National Council of State Housing Agencies is asking the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department to include guidance on tax-exempt bond and low-income housing tax credit issues in their 2013 - 2014 priority list.