Tax

The Internal Revenue Service has published a list of answers to frequently asked questions about new tax-credit bond programs.

WASHINGTON — The Cinco Municipal Utility District No. 1 near Houston announced that the Internal Revenue Service has closed an audit of $5.2 million of revenue bonds it issued with no change to their tax-exempt status.

The Internal Revenue Service Wednesday announced it is accepting applications from nonprofit electric cooperatives for $190.8 million of new clean renewable energy bonds that have not yet been allocated.

An Internal Revenue Service agent is warning the Crystal City, Tex., Public Facilities Corp. that $13.9 million of bonds it issued in 2003 to purchase a jail may not be tax-exempt because the agency appears to have exceeded private business-use limits.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department is considering whether it needs to issue guidance to address a potential ambiguity in the tax code that could bar issuers selling qualified energy conservation bonds from taking full advantage of available tax credits.

WASHINGTON — The vast majority of early Build America Bond subsidy payments were processed in a timely and accurate manner during the first five months of the program, with no evidence of fraud or errors, according to a new report.

New York plans to price two delayed personal income-tax bond deals totaling $1.66 billion over the next two months.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has told the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency that if it wants to settle a bond-related tax dispute, the settlement will have to cover all $700 million of its outstanding student loan debt.

DALLAS — After scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service over a previous issue of Build America Bonds, Austin is forgoing BABs in its sale of $145 million of general obligation debt this week.

U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, the Republican candidate for governor of Oklahoma, said last week that she favors an eventual elimination of the state corporate and personal income taxes.

An overwhelming majority of Build America Bond subsidy payments have been paid in full to BAB issuers, suggesting that concerns about offsets are dramatically overblown, according to new data on state issuers compiled by the Internal Revenue Service and prepared remarks expected to be delivered this morning by a top Treasury Department official.

The Congressional Budget Office Thursday upped the estimated cost of the Build America Bond program by $10 billion to $36 billion over 10 years in its new estimates on the fiscal 2010 budget deficit and economic outlook.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California has reached a closing agreement with the Internal Revenue Service over $22.5 million of revenue bonds it issued in 2003 to finance a golf course and accompanying facilities.

Texas sales tax collections in July totaled $1.7 billion, up 2.2% from July 2009, with increases posted by the retail, construction, and oil and gas sectors.

Oklahoma tax revenues outpaced expectations in the first month of fiscal 2011, with $370.1 million in collections. The total is almost 10% better than July 2009 and almost 12% above the official state budget estimate.

Voters in Saline County last week overwhelmingly defeated a proposal for a 1% sales tax to support $55 million of bonds for a new county fair complex.

New York City has begun another round of applications for recovery zone facility bond financing, even though it has already selected projects that would use its entire $121 million allocation.

WASHINGTON — Martin Kanefsky is the second broker of muni investment agreements that the Justice Department has taken action against, after CDR Financial Products, which the government indicted in October on nine criminal counts over alleged bid-rigging of muni investment and derivatives contracts.

WASHINGTON — Two medical groups have asked the Internal Revenue Service to allow hospitals to be flexible when conducting the community health needs assessments required under the health care reform law.

Dan Rostenkowski, the top tax writer in the House for 14 years who helped push tax measures through Congress that transformed the municipal bond market, died Wednesday at his home in Wisconsin. He was 82.