Tax Break

A rainbow appears over hotels on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, REUTERS/Ethan Miller

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

* Amazon agrees to begin collecting sales taxes in Nevada.  The Wall Street Journal. Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to collect a sales tax on items sold in Nevada beginning in 2014, or earlier should proposed federal legislation mandate that online retailers collect sales taxes. The online retailing giant said it will collect taxes in the same manner as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, an agreement that is expected to raise at least $16 million a year for the state, according to the Las Vegas Sun, which initially reported the news. Link

* German cabinet approves Swiss tax deal. Madeline Chambers – Reuters. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet passed a revised deal to tax secret deposits in Swiss bank accounts on Wednesday, betting that the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) will drop their objections and back the accord in parliament. Switzerland and Germany hammered out the new deal earlier this month after a diplomatic spat that lasted years. Link

* OECD head urges Japan to fix finances, hike consumption tax. Kelly Olsen – The Wall Street Journal. The head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Angel Gurria said Wednesday that he supports Japan’s plan to raise the consumption tax. The Japanese government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda submitted legislation to parliament in March that would raise the tax from the current 5 percent in two stages. But the plan has come under fierce criticism. Link

* Buffett gets a break on fee. Brody Mullins – The Wall Street Journal. NetJets Inc., the private-jet company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., spent more than $1 million over the past three years to lobby Congress to cut a user fee. The reduced fee, part of the recent Federal Aviation Administration bill that took effect earlier this month, will save customers of NetJets and similar companies roughly $83 million over about four years, according to congressional estimates. Link

A tea vendor holds an umbrella at a roadside in Mumbai. REUTERS/Sima Dubey

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

* In presidential race’s give-and-take, hope for a fiscal compromise. John Harwood – The New York Times. Some elected officials and policy experts see improving odds for 2012 to end up yielding much more, including progress toward a deal on tax and budget issues that have confounded Washington’s divided government. Some say the campaign dialogue could even bring a deal closer. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, a member of the Finance Committee, recently urged fellow Republicans to accept Democrats’ demand for some tax increases, as long as Democrats accepted the longstanding argument by conservatives that revenue calculations account for at least some positive effect on economic growth from changes in the tax code. Link 

* Macquarie hedge fund exits short bets in India on tax fears. Nishant Kumar – Reuters. Macquarie’s Asia hedge fund has exited its short positions in Indian single stock futures in response to a controversial set of proposed tax rules that could lower investment returns. Foreign investors have raised concerns on two recent Indian provisions to tax indirect investments and combat tax evasion. Link

* Filmmaker wins case against IRS. Michael Cieply – The New York Times. Documentary filmmakers can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that the producer and director Lee Storey won her case last week against the commissioner of Internal Revenue in United States Tax Court. The IRS tried to disallow Storey’s deduction of expenses incurred while making and marketing the film “Smile ’Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story.” Link 

U.S. Park Police Officer Calvin Covington with his horse Harper mails his family's income tax returns at a mobile post office near the Internal Revenue Service building in downtown Washington. REUTERS/Jonathan

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

* Romney’s remarks on limiting tax deductions draw fire. By Sam Youngman and Donna Smith – Reuters. After Mitt Romney was overheard telling supporters at a private fundraiser in Florida over the weekend that he might seek to limit tax deductions for mortgages and eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), aides said on Monday that Romney was simply throwing out ideas, not outlining policy to help offset his proposal to slash all U.S. tax rates by 20 percent. Link  

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

* Romney specifies deductions he would cut. Sara Murray – The Wall Street Journal. In order to offset the 20 percent income tax cut he has proposed for all taxpayers, Romney would eliminate or limit for high-earners the mortgage interest deduction for second homes, and likely would do the same for the state income tax deduction and state property tax deduction. He also said he would look to the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for budget cuts. Link

* Q+A: The ‘Buffett Rule,’ a minimum tax on the rich. Kim Dixon and Patrick Temple-West – Reuters. President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are laying a political trap for Republicans to be sprung on Monday when the U. S. Senate is slated to vote on the proposed “Buffett Rule,” which would slap a minimum tax on the highest-income Americans. Link

* For Americans abroad, taxes just got more complicated. David Jolly – The New York Times. Americans overseas face a new form that will add to the hassle of tax time for many and, critics say, set up the unwary for penalties. The new requirement comes courtesy of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, an effort to crack down on offshore tax evasion by U.S. citizens. Link

U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to speak about tax fairness and the economy at Florida Atlantic University, April 10, 2012. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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

* Soaking the rich might not be a panacea. Vanessa Houlder – The Financial Times. The super rich are under fire across much of the developed world. U.S. President Barack Obama is on the road this week promoting the “Buffett rule”, a minimum tax on millionaires. In France, François Hollande is proposing a 75 per cent tax rate on the rich. In Britain, George Osborne, chancellor, has expressed shock at evidence showing the scale of tax planning by some of the wealthiest people in the country. Link

*Obama to enlist millionaires in Buffett Rule campaign. Margaret Talev – Bloomberg News. President Barack Obama is intensifying his campaign for higher taxes on top U.S. earners, casting the issue against Republican opposition as one of fairness and support for the middle class. Link

Democrats are hoping to peg their White House-proposed thirty percent tax on millionaires to major end-of-the- year fiscal deadlines — including the expiration of tax cuts for all Americans. They hope that will box Republicans into a corner.

Known as the Buffett rule, named for the billionaire investor who famously complained that his tax rate is lower than that of his secretary, the proposal has virtually no chance of moving on its own with Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Democrats with only a razor-thin majority in the Senate.

Democrats hope that the looming expiration of tax cuts for all individuals enacted by former Republican president George W. Bush will motivate them. Plus polls show many Americans back raising taxes on the rich.