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The Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday that Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day — will be the first day it will accept all itemized tax returns.
Late last year, the IRS said it would need extra time to reprogram its processing systems because Congress acted so late this year in cleaning up the tax code. Get the full story »
The founder of Jimmy John’s sandwich shops says he’s considering moving his company’s headquarters from Champaign to Florida because of Illinois’ tax increase.
Jimmy John Liautaud told The (Champaign) News-Gazette Tuesday that he’s gathering information on a potential move and will ask the company’s board to decide. Get the full story »
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn today signed a major income tax increase the Legislature passed earlier this week.
The U.S. Treasury said on Thursday it is launching a pilot program to deliver income tax refunds on debit cards for low- and moderate-income people who do not have traditional bank accounts.
The Visa prepaid debit cards are designed to allow these taxpayers to receive their refunds much faster than with a paper check and avoid high fees for cashing those checks at currency exchanges or payday loan stores. Get the full story »
Caterpillar is one of Illinois' biggest employers. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, file)
Illinois companies hit by an extended economic downturn say the state’s proposed remedy to its own financial crisis — a beefy tax increase — will deplete investment in local businesses, trigger job losses and force companies to leave the state.
The state is home to some of the biggest and best-known U.S. companies, including three components of the Dow Jones industrial average — Boeing, Caterpillar and McDonald’s.
An income tax increase that passed the Illinois Legislature Wednesday would raise the individual income tax rate temporarily to 5 percent from 3 percent and the corporate tax rate to 7 percent from 4.8 percent. Get the full story »
The federal budget deficit narrowed slightly in December from a year earlier, but the deficit for the entire year is still on pace to exceed $1 trillion.
The government ran a deficit of $80 billion last month, down 12.4 percent from the previous December, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. Through the first three months of the current budget year, the deficit totals $370.8 billion, an improvement of 3.1 percent a year earlier. Get the full story »
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner speaks at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies on Jan. 12, 2011. (Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)
The Obama administration is exploring ways to boost tax incentives for corporate investment in the United States, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday, ahead of his meeting with chief financial officers from some of America’s biggest companies.
“We’re examining whether we can find political support for a comprehensive tax reform — revenue neutral — but that would improve incentives for investing in the United States,” Geithner said in comments after a speech at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Geithner is expected to meet with CFOs of major U.S. companies including Microsoft Corp and Cisco Systems on Friday to hash out ideas for simplifying and trimming the corporate tax — nearly the highest in the industrialized world. Get the full story »
A triumphant Gov. Pat Quinn congratulated fellow Democrats early today after the Illinois Senate and House sent him a major income tax increase without a single Republican vote in favor.
Quinn smiled and shook hands on the floor of the Senate around 1:30 a.m. after the Senate voted 30-29 for the bill, which would raise the personal income tax-rate by 67 percent and the business income tax rate by 46 percent.
The House passed the bill hours earlier Tuesday night — likewise without a vote to spare and with nary a Republican in support.
Most Americans think the United States should raise taxes for the rich to balance the budget, according to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll released Monday.
President Barack Obama last month signed into law a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for millions of Americans, including the wealthiest, in a compromise with Republicans.
Republicans, who this week take control of the House of Representatives, want to extend all Bush-era tax cuts “permanently” for the middle class and wealthier Americans. They are also demanding spending cuts to curb the $1.3 trillion deficit. Get the full story »
Millions of H&R Block Inc. customers who relied on short-term loans backed by their expected tax refunds will not have that option this year, since Block’s banking partner was forced by federal regulators to stop offering the loans.
It’s a blow to Block, the nation’s largest tax preparation company, which could lose customers to competitors still offering the loans because it has virtually no time to find a new funding partner before tax season starts in January. Get the full story »
The federal government is accusing a Chicago woman of preparing fraudulent tax returns by faking or inflating donations to charities and business expenses.
The government says Martha A. Jones prepared about 270 fraudulent tax returns annually between 2005 and 2008. Court documents estimate that they have led to a loss of over $5 million in revenue.
Because Jones didn’t sign the tax returns she prepared or helped prepare, the government is unsure of the exact number of fraudulent returns. Get the full story »
Some taxpayers will be unable to file returns until mid-to-late February because of recent tax breaks approved by Congress in its lame-duck session, the IRS said Thursday.
Congress approved tax breaks for higher education tuition, state and local sales taxes and out-of-pocket expenses for teachers in kindergarten through high school. Get the full story »
The New Year’s celebrations will barely be over before financial advisers face their first challenge for 2011 — new rules requiring brokerages to tell Uncle Sam how much investors paid for stocks.
The cost-basis reporting rules are designed to ensure people do not understate investment gains or overstate investment losses to minimize their taxes. Get the full story »
From Crain’s Chicago Business | The Civic Federation, a Chicago-based non-partisan government research organization, in a report today recommended Cook County simplify its property tax system, which has become overburdened by exemptions and mulitple layers of administration.
“We’re not calling for a massive immediate overhaul of the property tax system,” Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, said in an interview. “We recommend that they do no further harm to the property tax system.” Get the full story>>
Nearly a century after coming into existence, the mortgage deduction may face a day of reckoning. Although out of the spotlight while the lame-duck Congress thrashes to an end, the mortgage deduction issue is likely to resurface next year when the new Congress — including a lot more deficit-hawk Republicans — takes over.
In part, the hoary deduction has a target on its back as a result of policymakers rethinking the whole issue of homeownership. In the wake of the havoc that followed the latest housing bust — a calamity that still shadows the U.S. economy and will for years to come — it’s no longer so clear that near-universal homeownership should be a paramount goal. Get the full story »
