Business - Taxes and Tax Season

Washington - As President Obama prepares to sign the second historic reform bill of his administration – health care in March, finance reform next week – Republicans are offering their own answers to why jobs have not recovered and enlisting business groups to help make their case. Full Story »

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana collected $957 million less in taxes than budgeted over the last 12 months, a gap that was closed by slashing spending and dipping into state reserves. Full Story »

Four years after the housing bubble popped, the American real estate market has yet to launch a sustainable recovery. Although U.S. home prices have improved modestly since the spring of 2009--and certain regional markets have performed even better--sales and values will face renewed downward pressure later this year in the wake of the expiration of the federal home buyer tax credit. Indeed, some analysts expect the bloated inventory and sputtering demand to trigger a "double dip" housing recession, with prices possibly even slipping back below their April 2009 lows. Full Story »

NEW YORK - Former H&R Block Inc. CEO Thomas Bloch said Friday he is leaving the tax preparer's board of directors and sharply criticized the company's priorities, prices, and its failure to keep up with do-it-yourself online tax programs. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - The once-popular ethanol industry is scrambling to hold onto billions of dollars in government subsidies, fighting an increasing public skepticism of the corn-based fuel and wariness from lawmakers who may divert the money to other priorities. Full Story »

Until recently, it was a given that President Barack Obama would make good on his campaign pledge to let the Bush-era tax cuts that benefited wealthy Americans expire at the end of this year. Ditto for his promise to maintain the tax cuts for households earning up to $250,000 a year. Full Story »

With the rocky real estate market in recent years, an owner who has a property pregnant with profit either bought at the right time way before the boom or has been blessed by lady fortune. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday reminded BP not to forget Uncle Sam when the company doles out cash to pay for its oil spill. Full Story »

SAN FRANCISCO - Home sales in Northern California fell 3.1 percent last month to the third-lowest June total since 1995 as the effect of federal tax credits for home buyers faded, according to a real estate tracking firm. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans armed themselves to the teeth and paid through the nose to have a smoke, according to a U.S. government report released on Wednesday. Full Story »

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Missouri senators have overcome a more than 20-hour filibuster and approved new tax breaks aimed at enticing Ford Motor Co. to continue making vehicles at a Kansas City area plant. Full Story »

BERLIN - Police searched all 13 branches of Swiss bank Credit Suisse AG in Germany on Wednesday in an investigation of suspected tax evasion, prosecutors said. Full Story »

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A week after igniting a firestorm over restaurant worker pay, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Emmer on Tuesday proposed eliminating Minnesota income taxes on some tipped wages. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress will likely act to extend tax cuts for the middle class to avoid choking off the fragile economic recovery, key congressional Democrats said on Tuesday. Full Story »

DETROIT - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded poverty Tuesday and was granted a lawyer at public expense to defend him against charges that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars collected for a charity on himself and his family. Full Story »

DUBLIN - For two long years, the Irish have suffered through harsh government cutbacks and tax increases that have taken a fat chunk out of their take-home pay — painful medicine to avoid national bankruptcy. Full Story »

Benefit payments from the Social Security trust fund exceeded tax income and interest for the first time in 2010, according to Congressional Budget Office calculations released on Friday. As the economy recovers from the recession, income will again exceed benefit payments until 2016. After that, Social Security payments to retirees will begin to draw on the trust fund's reserves. Beginning in 2039 benefits will need to be cut by about 20 percent, under current law. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Businesses have hired 4.5 million workers under a new program that provides tax breaks for hiring unemployed workers, the Treasury Department said Monday. Full Story »