Tax

WASHINGTON — A professional group of accountants is asking the Internal Revenue Service to give large nonprofit hospitals a grace period of at least three years to fix any tax compliance problems that could jeopardize their tax-exempt status.

WASHINGTON — Municipal market participants have many questions about new rules adopted by the Internal Revenue Service that require paid tax preparers to register with it, possibly take competency tests, and pay penalties for improper filings.

Education and information have become a more valuable tool in the municipal bond market since the meltdown of 2008, participants in The Bond Buyer's California Public Finance Conference said Wednesday.

DETROIT — Independent financial ­advisers meeting here Thursday questioned the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Martha Mahan Haines about which advisers must register with the SEC under the new regulatory reform law, while Haines announced that the agency will hold its next field hearing on munis in Chicago on Nov. 16.

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan delivered a shot across the bow to the city's employees when he unveiled his proposed 2011 budget Oct. 1.

Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino wants to join a lawsuit challenging the legality of a tax enacted last year to help fund mass transit capital projects in the New York City area, he announced Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Municipal market participants should not expect the Treasury Department to simply rubber-stamp the existing tax-exempt bond rules for issue price when it comes to Build America Bonds, a Treasury official told bond lawyers at a recent meeting.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department wants to hear from the public about the form issuers must file to recover excess amounts of arbitrage they rebated to the federal government.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has told the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority that $3.5 million of development revenue bonds it issued in 2005 to finance a manufacturing facility could be ­taxable.

The National Congress of American Indians is urging the Treasury Department to revoke the burdensome “essential governmental function” test for tribal tax-exempt financings, as well as allow tribes to take advantage of private-activity bonds and use federal guarantees.

Congress is expected to leave town either late Wednesday or early Thursday to campaign for the fall elections after approving stopgap spending legislation that would keep the federal government running in fiscal 2011, which starts on Oct. 1.

An issuer that wants to refund post-2003 commercial paper before the end of the year can take advantage of a stimulus provision that allows those refunding notes to be exempt from the alternative minimum tax, the Internal Revenue Service recently ruled.

A number of Build America Bond issuers are seeking voluntary closing agreements with the Internal Revenue Service to settle accidental violations of a de minimis premium rule, an IRS official told industry officials in Manhattan yesterday.

DALLAS — Bond dealers who claim the role of market maker in the pricing of municipal securities can run afoul of regulators unless they qualify with the Securities and Exchange Commission, warned Malcolm Northam, director of fixed-income ­securities at the Financial Industry ­Regulatory Authority.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are expected to take up a stopgap spending measure to continue funding federal agencies after Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, before they break to campaign for the November elections.

WASHINGTON — A public power provider can issue tax-exempt bonds to finance a wind facility even if it sells renewable energy certificates to private parties, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled.

The expiration of the federal income-tax cuts put into place in 2001 and 2003 could reduce the amount Louisiana collects from its income tax by between $30 million and $120 million a year, beginning in fiscal 2012.

The Birmingham City Council approved a resolution Tuesday supporting an increase in the lodging tax rate by 3.5% to support the development of sports and entertainment facilities.

WASHINGTON — The Internal ­Revenue Service is seeking public comment on existing regulations that outline how bond attorneys should practice ­before it.

WASHINGTON — Market participants are concerned that issuers of draw-down bonds with tax benefits provided by temporary stimulus provisions could lose some benefits if the provisions expire at the end of the year as scheduled.