Tax

The Internal Revenue Service has notified the Montana Facility Finance Authority that it has closed its audit of $14.15 million of variable-rate demand revenue bonds issued in 2002 without any change to the bonds’ tax-exempt status.

DALLAS — As Colorado’s legislature seeks cuts to balance the budget amid falling revenue, Sen. Rollie Heath is proposing a temporary $1.6 billion tax hike to reduce the impact on public schools.

CHICAGO — Kansas City, Mo., will enter the market later this month with a $55 million new-money and refunding general obligation issue that comes as the city is bracing for a public vote next month on whether the city can continue to collect an earnings tax that serves as its main revenue source.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker late last month signed legislation that requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to approve tax hikes.

CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday dropped his proposal for an income tax surcharge on top earners after the state announced a new revenue forecast that trimmed nearly $1.2 billion off the $6.2 billion deficit looming in the next two-year budget cycle.

Oklahoma’s highest income-tax rate will drop to 5.25% from 5.5% on Jan. 2, 2012, after the Board of Equalization determined last week that revenues will be 4.4% higher next year than in fiscal 2011.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Friday that issuers that purchased and still hold their auction-rate securities can enter into voluntary closing agreements under which the securities will continue to exist if the issuers pay a fee and meet certain conditions.

New Jersey residents in fiscal 2009 paid the highest state and local taxes in the U.S., according to report released last week from the Tax Foundation.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., has introduced a bill that would prohibit state and local governments from issuing tax-exempt bonds unless they meet certain pension-disclosure requirements. Meanwhile, two House members have introduced separate bills to reinstate the Build America Bond program.

The chances that Ambac Assurance Corp. will be able to keep $700 million of disputed tax refunds increased last week when a federal court in Wisconsin again threw out the Internal Revenue Service’s case against the bond insurer.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service chief counsel’s office has issued guidance that sides with a conduit issuer in Montana and a retirement home operator in a four-year old dispute over whether some of the authority’s bonds are taxable.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $7 million of revenue bonds issued in 2007 by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority for Confluence Energy LLC to finance the construction of a wood-pellet manufacturing plant in Kremmling, Colo.

Bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp. remains at risk after the Internal Revenue Service filed an amended complaint last week to retrieve more than $700 million of tax refunds.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $60 million of hospital revenue bonds that were issued by Lakeland, Fla., in 2002 for Lakeland Regional Health Systems.

Georgia Sen. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, is sponsoring the Taxpayer Protection Act of 2011, a proposed constitutional amendment that would limit how much in tax dollars the state can spend each year. He said budget cuts and the state’s depleted rainy-day fund are among the reasons he sponsored SR 20, which has been approved by the Senate Finance Committee.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened an audit of $3 million of bonds issued by an authority in Little Rock almost four years after it entered into a closing agreement with the agency that preserved the bonds’ tax-exempt status.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $51 million of auction-rate securities that were issued in a conduit deal in 2005 by the Orange County, Fla., Health Facilities Authority to current-refund bonds and finance a hospital project.

As part of an ongoing initiative to examine developer-driven deals, the Internal Revenue Service is auditing $48.47 million of defaulted bonds issued by the Stoneybrook South Community Development District in Florida in 2007 for infrastructure improvements.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Most Californians agree with Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to hold a special election soon to decide if temporary state tax increases should be extended, according to a poll released this week.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday allocated $400 million of qualified zone academy bonds to states and U.S. territories for 2011.