Tax Break

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.

* Swiss bank tied to indictment ponders U.S. registration -sources. John Letzing – The Wall Street Journal. A Swiss private bank that recently suspended an executive who allegedly helped U.S. taxpayers evade obligations is considering opening a U.S. branch, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a step intended to help it comply with U.S. regulations. Link 

* Tax collections from wealthy are saving government. Robert Frank – CNBC. Call it proof that the system is working—or proof that the system is broken—but taxes paid by the nation’s top earners are putting government back in the black. Link 

* Economists see deficit emphasis as impeding recovery. Jackie Calmes – The New York Times. The nation’s unemployment rate would probably be nearly a point lower, roughly 6.5 percent, and economic growth almost two points higher this year if Washington had not cut spending and raised taxes as it has since 2011, according to private-sector and government economists. Link

* Austria is pressured to reveal more about tax evaders. James Kanter – The New York Times. Austria faced renewed pressure on Wednesday to reveal more about tax evaders after senior officials of the European Union called for automatic information sharing to apply more widely and rapidly within the bloc. Link 

* Indian authorities investigate BMW over taxes. Prasanta Sahu – The Wall Street Journal. Indian authorities are investigating whether the local unit of German auto maker BMW AG owes an additional $120 million in taxes on auto-part imports since March 2011, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Link 

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.

* Tax proposals open a debate on airline industry’s troubles. Susan Stellin – The New York Times. A $300 domestic airline ticket now includes about $60 in taxes — or 20 percent of the total fare — which pays for things like air traffic controllers, airport improvements, customs and immigration inspections and checkpoint screening. Link     

* Indefinitely reinvested foreign earnings on the rise. Maxwell Murphy – The Wall Street Journal. Foreign profits at U.S.-based multinational companies will soon top $2 trillion. But much of that sum is unlikely to return to the U.S., regardless of the status of U.S. tax rules, as it already has been spent abroad. Link   

* A strategy for business owners to avoid investment tax. Arden Dale – The Wall Street Journal. Before the tax strategy can be employed, advisers need to examine their business-owning clients’ Forms K-1 to determine if they are actively involved or whether they only have a passive role like an investor. Link    

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.

* Tax rewrite in play on Capitol. John McKinnon – The Wall Street Journal. Talk about overhauling the tax code is picking up across Capitol Hill this spring, with lawmakers of both parties agreeing on the need to simplify the system but remaining far apart on the details of how to do it. Link    

* In Commerce pick’s ’08 answers on finances, possible hints at road ahead. Charles Savage – The New York Times. Republican senators are likely to be interested in the Pritzker family’s reputation as innovators in the use of offshore trusts and foreign bank secrecy laws to shelter their wealth from income, capital gains and inheritance taxes. Link    

* Leniency for offshore cheats. Laura Saunders – The Wall Street Journal. Despite a high-profile government crackdown on secret offshore financial accounts since 2009, the average sentence in those cases has been about half as long as in some other types of tax cases. Link    

Some important events in the week ahead:

Sunday, May 5 – Tuesday, May 7

Offshore investigators, service providers and clients attend the Offshore Alert Conference. The Ritz-Carlton South Beach. Miami.

Tuesday, May 7

* Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Private Company Council meeting. 8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET. Norwalk, Connecticut.

* Public Company Accounting Oversight Board open board meeting covering auditing standards and other proposals. 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET, PCAOB offices. Washington.

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.

* The corporate tax game. Graham Bowley – The New York Times. Despite the widespread support, the campaign for a tax reform overhaul is exposing deep fault lines within the business world that suggest it may fall apart. Link

* Senate considering bill to ban tax scofflaw contractors. Tom Vanden Brook – The USA Today. The Senate is considering a bill the House unanimously passed last month that would prevent contractors with tax debts from doing business with the federal government. Link

* California tax revenue yields multibillion-dollar surplus. Chris Megerian – The Los Angeles Times. California has been flooded with revenue this tax season and is on track to finish the fiscal year with a surplus of billions of dollars, according to officials. Link

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal speaks after the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, February 25, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.

* Governors, GOP allies clash over tax cuts. Mark Peters and Neil King – The Wall Street Journal. Republican lawmakers in several states are blunting plans by GOP governors to reduce or eliminate income taxes, putting the legislators at odds with figures many in the party see as leading voices on reshaping government. Link

* FATCA treaties held up in U.S. Senate. Ben DiPietro – The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. Senate is unable to ratify three Foreign Tax Account Compliance Act treaties because of a hold by Senator Rand Paul, and if the delays continue much longer they could complicate implementation of the law, which is due to take effect in January. Link

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines.

 * Rising tax receipts spark bets on reduced U.S. Treasury sales. Min Zeng – The Wall Street Journal. A surge in tax receipts has reduced the U.S. government’s borrowing needs, fueling speculation that a reduction of sales in notes could be coming for the first time since 2010. Link 

* To satisfy its investors, cash-rich Apple borrows money. Peter Lattman and Peter Eavis – The New York Times. By raising cheap debt for the shareholder payout, Apple also avoids a potentially big tax hit. Link 

* Ebay boss expects ‘uproar’ from small business over online tax. Tom Gara – The Wall Street Journal. eBay CEO John Donohoe believes small online sellers — who make up the majority of its customers — will face crippling costs complying with the proposed law, and wants them to be exempted from the new system. Link

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.

 * Americans living abroad say U.S. tax laws punishing them. Margaret Collins and Richard Rubin – Bloomberg news. Complexity has increased for Americans abroad with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, enacted in 2010 to combat tax evasion by US taxpayers with assets offshore. Link    

* It takes 2 votes, but Minnesota Senate approves $1.8 billion tax bill. Baird Helgeson and Jennifer Brooks – The Star Tribune. The Minnesota Senate approved $1.8 billion in tax increases on a second try Monday, but only after salvaging the measure amid an embarrassing political defeat for Democratic leaders. Link    

* France’s Hollande plans tax changes to woo investment. William Horobin and Sam Schechner – The Wall Street Journal. French President François Hollande called a broad sweep of business leaders at the Elysee Palace Monday to offer them a break on the capital gains tax and pitch new proposals for encouraging entrepreneurship in a country desperate for growth. Link    

Some important tax and accounting events in the week ahead:

Monday, April 29 – Friday, May 3

* Tax Executives Institute federal taxation course. East Lansing, Michigan.

Tuesday, April 30

* D.C. Bar Association session on the taxation of financial derivatives. 12 noon – 1:30 p.m., D.C. Bar Conference Center. Washington.

Tuesday, April 30 – Thursday, May 2

* Experts from the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Department and private industry address the Practicing Law Institute conference on tax planning for domestic and foreign partnerships. Chicago, New York, San Francisco and by webcast.

Wednesday, May 1

* Financial Accounting Standards Board meeting on EITF accounting issues. 8:30 a.m., FASB offices. Norwalk, Connecticut.

Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.

* GOP moves away from entitlements and toward tax reform in budget deal. Lori Montgomery – The Washington Post. With another fight over the national debt brewing this summer, congressional Republicans are de-emphasizing their demand for politically painful cuts to retirement programs and focusing on a more popular prize: a thorough rewrite of the U.S. tax code. Link  

* Push to require online sales tax divides the GOP. Jonathan Weisman – The New York Times. Legislation that would force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes from their customers has put antitax and small-government activists like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and the Heritage Foundation in an unusual position: they’re losing. Link   

* Hybrid drivers may save on gas but new tax gotchya. Jayne O’Donnell – USA Today. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, signed a new law last month that lowers the gas tax for everyone, but slaps a $64-per-year fee on hybrid and electric car owners. Link