Tax

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $63.2 million of Build America Bonds that a school district in Finney County, Kan., issued in mid-2009 to finance a new high school and an addition to an elementary school, according to the district’s chief financial officer.

CHICAGO — The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is expected to vote Thursday on an underwriting team, led by JPMorgan, for its sale next month of up to $500 million of mostly taxable Build America Bonds.

WASHINGTON — Airport executives made one more attempt this week to convince Senate tax lawmakers to extend two popular bond-financing provisions beyond the end of this year so that airports can continue to borrow at lower rates.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department should permanently apply existing regulations on issue price to all tax-exempt and direct-pay bonds, while clarifying several aspects of the rules, according to the American Bar Association’s taxation section.

President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal reform commission cited a tax-reform bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and replace them with tax-credit bonds as a potential way forward when it comes to simplifying the tax code and reducing the federal deficit, according to a draft proposal released Wednesday.

Ambac Financial Group Inc. hurried into bankruptcy protection this week because it was worried the Internal Revenue Service might gut the entire company — including its sacrosanct bond insurance subsidiary, according to court documents.

The Internal Revenue Service has completed an audit of $67.6 million of bonds issued by Washington's Vancouver Downtown Redevelopment Authority in 2003 with no change to the bonds' tax-exempt status, the issuer disclosed this week.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday that it is giving tribal governments until the end of 2011 to issue the first $1 billion tranche of tribal economic development bonds, in an effort to save the tribes from having to forfeit any unused allocations at year-end.

WASHINGTON — Market participants hoping Congress will extend the Build America Bond program and other expiring muni provisions before the end of the year can’t count on incoming House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Dave Camp for support.

If a state authority issues bonds to pay catastrophe insurance claims, they would not qualify as private-activity bonds because they would be backed with generally applicable taxes and not private payments, the Internal Revenue Service concluded in a recent private-letter ruling.

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking applicants for a tax-exempt bond expert to join its Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities.

SAN ANTONIO — Build America Bond issuers could potentially go years without subsidy payments under the examination process the Internal Revenue Service is currently considering for them, bond attorneys meeting here warned last week.

SAN ANTONIO — Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service officials are trying to figure out how to apply long-standing tax requirements to Build America Bonds that, if interpreted broadly, could have major ramifications for certain BABs held by public pension funds and other governmental entities, possibly leading to their extinguishment.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s $1.37 billion of Series 2009F Build America Bonds in a routine examination.

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service is examining $600 million of Build America Bonds it issued in August 2009 — the second IRS audit of BABs announced in less than a week.

DALLAS — San Antonio’s CPS Energy is planning its fourth and largest issue of Build America Bonds on Thursday as it faces an Internal Revenue Service audit of a previous BAB deal.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service Monday shed some light on its Build America Bond enforcement efforts, announcing what it hopes to achieve with its audits and how BABs will fit into its voluntary-closing agreement program so that issuers will not lose all their subsidy payments for minor inadvertent violations.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Information Administration has determined that a legislative proposal to create and authorize $2.4 billion of home energy conservation bonds, as well as new tax credits, would help save 14 trillion British thermal units more than normal expected consumption levels.

Louisiana Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, said Monday he would support a temporary reinstatement of state income tax hikes that were repealed in 2008 if it would avoid severe budget cuts for higher education.

WASHINGTON — The first two quarters of the year showed gains in state tax revenues, thanks mostly to legislated tax increases, but total collections still linger below 2008 levels, the Rockefeller Institute of Government said Tuesday.