Tax

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $110.4 million of communication system revenue bonds that were issued in 2007 by Lafayette, La. to finance startup costs of the city-owned utility that sells television, Internet and telephone services to residents.

Former congressional tax counsels John Buckley and Jon Traub on Tuesday sparred over the recent experiment by the Joint Committee on Taxation to see how much marginal tax rates could be reduced if certain major tax expenditures, including tax exemption, were eliminated.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued a fact sheet of frequently-asked questions to help resolve confusion over their new public pension accounting and reporting standards.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and four major industry groups spent millions of dollars on lobbyists to push their agendas on Capitol Hill, while the National Association of State Treasurers was the only governmental group to report hiring lobbyists, according to annual tax forms 22 muni-related groups filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Market participants should be wary of threats to tax-exempt bonds, but the politically-charged atmosphere in Washington, D.C. raises doubts about the ability of Congress to pass comprehensive tax reform legislation, lobbyists and others said Friday.

Middle-market, fixed-income dealer firms are adding staffers to their compliance divisions, part of an expensive effort to comply with a host of new financial regulations coming from Washington, D.C., some executives said at a meeting here.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has begun examining municipal bond dealers' compliance with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's recently released interpretive guidance to Rule G-17, which spells out underwriters' fair-dealing obligations to municipal issuers.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R- Colo., has introduced legislation that would allow governmental and 501(c)(3) nonprofit bonds to be refunded a second time so that issuers and borrowers could save money by taking advantage of low interest rates.

The Internal Revenue Service has told the Nebraska Public Power District that $10 million of the $50.36 million of Series A Build America Bonds it issued in June 2009 do not qualify for the 35% subsidy payment it receives from the U.S. Treasury.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Jefferson County, Ala., said Monday that the Internal Revenue Service is examining $82.5 million of outstanding lease revenue warrants issued in 2006.

Municipal analysts and market participants offered mixed views about how municipal bonds would fare under the tax proposals of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama.

States have been operating in fiscal year 2013 for three months already and tax growth is expected to rise in between 1% and 4.9% in nearly three-quarters of the states for the third consecutive year, according to a new report.

After serving two five-year terms, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Attmore has announced he will retire in 2013.

Taxpayers for Common Sense proposed $2 trillion in deficit reductions, including slashing the deduction of state and local general sales taxes to save more than $23 billion over 10 years.

The IRS has closed an audit without changing the tax-exempt status of $31.23 million of health center revenue bonds that were issued by the Lebanon County Health Facilities Authority in 2005 on behalf of the Pleasant View Retirement Community Project.

Two retirement administrative groups are urging Moody's Investors Services to delay its proposed changes to analyzing public sector pension data, saying it will increase confusion and reduce transparency of pension liabilities.

The IRS is seeking applicants for four positions on its Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities, known as ACT.

The Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit without changing the tax-exempt status of $65 million of general obligation limited tax water and sewer bonds that were issued by Washoe County, Nev. in December 2005.

During a tax policy panel discussion last week, tax experts agreed that tax-exempt bonds face a serious threat from tax reform or federal deficit reduction.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is hoping to quash what they call misconceptions that tax-exemption predominantly benefits upper-income taxpayers, as outlined in an eight-page white paper the group released Monday.