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Indiana is cranking up its push to lure Illinois businesses in the wake of tax increases here, rolling out a $250,000 marketing campaign that tries to position the Hoosier state as a lower-tax option.
“Feeling Squeezed by Taxes?” is the tagline on a Northwest Indiana campaign launching Monday in Chicago print and electronic media, and it dovetails with a broader Indiana push rolled out late last month, using the tagline, “Illinnoyed by Higher Taxes?” Get the full story »
Wealthy tax evaders with assets stashed offshore can come clean with U.S. authorities under a new amnesty program with reduced penalties, the government said Tuesday.
“It gives people a chance to come in before we find them,” Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman said. The new effort follows a 2009 amnesty program, which lured 15,000 taxpayers with hidden accounts. Get the full story »
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he plans a series of hearings to lay the groundwork for a tax code overhaul.
A Senate aide said Baucus has tentatively blocked off every Tuesday the Senate is in session in March and April, for the hearings. Get the full story »
From The New York Times’ DealBook | Chicago’s posh Blackstone Hotel, which charges visitors up to $699 per night, benefited from federal aid that targets poor communities, Bloomberg Markets reports in its March issue. Renovations for the hotel were financed by Prudential Financial, which received a $15.6 million tax credit from the New Markets Tax Credits program, a $10.1 billion incentive for companies to develop poor neighborhoods and towns.
Illinois Tool Works Inc. said Monday it will see a significant tax deduction, most likely in the first quarter, as the result of a court case in Australia.
The Glenview-based company, which makes automotive and food services equipment, industrial packaging and other products, said the Federal Court of Australia issued a favorable decision Feb. 4 in its dispute with the Australian Taxation Office over income tax deductions. Get the full story »
President Barack Obama speaks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 7, 2011 in Washington. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama said Monday he wanted to lower the corporate tax rate and pay for it by eliminating tax loopholes, and requested support from the business community to achieve that goal.
“Another barrier government can remove is a burdensome corporate tax code with one of the highest rates in the world,” Obama said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Obama’s visit to the powerful business lobby group is his latest effort to improve relations with the corporate world and shift to the political center, following big losses for his Democrats in November elections. Get the full story »
CME Group Inc., the world’s biggest futures exchange operator, said quarterly profit fell 3 percent, hurt by a one-time charge for state taxes. CME’s fourth-quarter net income fell to $196 million, or $2.93 a share, from $203 million, or $3.04 a share, a year earlier. Get the full story »
Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. sued H&R Block Inc to stop a new advertising campaign that it said misleads customers about tax refund loans and disparages Jackson Hewitt’s competence. Get the full story »
Check the due date on your Cook County property tax bills that will arrive in the mail any day.
Property owners have an extra 30 days to pay their bills. The first installment, for the 2010 tax year, is due April 1, instead of March 1. Get the full story »
CME Group Inc., which runs the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, has no plans to leave the city, despite concerns over Illinois’ recent tax hike, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
“We are not planning to leave Chicago,” the spokeswoman said in response to an e-mailed query from Reuters, after Fox Chicago News reported that CME was “threatening” to leave its hometown. Get the full story »
The Obama administration is open to any possible reform of the U.S. tax code “that’s going to simplify, make it more efficient and generate revenue,” top White House economist Austan Goolsbee said Thursday.
Goolsbee was speaking to a YouTube roundtable two days after President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address that he wanted to pursue ideas for tax reform.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in ad targeting Illinois businesses.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration thinks there’s business to be had — from Illinois.
The governor is launching an ad campaign encouraging businesses in Illinois to relocate to the Garden State. An official announcement from the Christie administration is planned for Tuesday, when ads will start appearing in newspapers and on radio stations in major Illinois cities like Chicago and Springfield. Get the full story »
The Internal Tax Revenue introduced its first smart phone app on Monday, called IRS2Go, which allows taxpayers to check the status of their refunds and find other tax information.
IRS2Go is a step toward “modernizing the agency and engaging taxpayers where they want when they want it,” the IRS said a press release. Get the full story »
The chief executive of Chicago’s biggest homegrown bank says the city’s business community expected the state to hike taxes, but that the Illinois legislature needs to also quickly address spending that’s contributing to deep budget deficits.
Illinois’ corporate income tax rate recently rose from 4.8 percent to 7 percent. Earlier this week Northern Trust Corp. said it expects the tax hike to reduce its earnings by about $4 million a year. Get the full story »
