Tax

Tax-exempt bonds should not be replaced and should be excluded from any cap on tax expenditures, a municipal bond coalition wrote leaders of Congress on Tuesday.

The IRS is auditing $149.1 million of general obligation bonds issued by Beaverton, Ore. School District in 2007.

Regulatory priorities for the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service this year and next include proposing guidance on arbitrage investment restrictions which likely includes issue price, according to plans they released this week.

In a favorable decision, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that assessment bonds and lease revenue bonds do not satisfy a private loan financing test, according to recently issued private letter rulings.

State and local public-employee pension systems had $3 trillion in cash and investment holdings in 2011, a $351.9 billion or 13.2% increase from $2.7 trillion in 2010, according to a new annual Census Bureau survey.

The credit quality for most municipal issuers who were affected by Hurricane Sandy is likely to remain unchanged, despite late debt service payments by four of them, according to a new report by Moody's Investors Service.

The possibility of a budget compromise between President Obama and Congress to raise income tax rates to rise is more likely than one that would include capping the value of tax exemption for the wealthy, a new Morgan Stanley Smith Barney report found.

The IRS has told the city of Bell, Calif., that $35 million of general obligation bonds it issued in 2007 may not be tax-exempt because the agency believes the bond issue is a hedge bond.

The creditworthiness of the U.S. federal government hinges on the outcome of budget negotiations in 2013 between the newly re-elected Barack Obama and the still divided Congress, a new Moody's report warned.

An Arkansas constitutional amendment authorizing STAR bonds in which sales tax revenue bonds would have supported economic development districts failed.

The nonpartisan congressional budget office warned that failure to aver the fiscal cliff could trigger another recession and cause the jobless rate to spike to 9.1%.

An attorney representing the Florida Village Center Community Development District has sent a letter to the IRS office of chief counsel challenging its tentative decision that the authority is not a political subdivision.

Miami-Dade County will consider hiring special counsel to explore whether there's a tax issue with revenue bonds sold in 1996.

The IRS is auditing $80.2 million of capital improvement revenue bonds the Arborwood Community Development District, Florida issued in 2006.

Municipal analysts and market participants warned that the re-election of President Barack Obama and the status quo with a divided Congress will likely make threats to tax exemption more plausible.

Californians voted Tuesday to pay higher taxes to help out schools, supporting Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to fill a fiscal hole that could have led to further budget turmoil.

Sen. Bill Nelson is urging the head of the Treasury Department to carefully consider the Internal Revenue Service's tentative decision that the Village Center Community Development District in Florida is not a political subdivision, warning it contradicts state law and would chill investment in the state.

A broader sales tax base in Oklahoma could provide the revenue needed to slash the top income tax rate, House Speaker pro tem Jeff Hickman said Monday.

Lowering the state income tax rate will depend on removing ineffective tax credits and rebates from the books, Rep. David Dank, R-Oklahoma City, said.

The Bond Buyer queried some municipal market experts asking them their top concerns for the market depending on the outcome of the 2012 Presidential election. The fate of the municipal tax exemption was a major concern.