Business - Taxes and Tax Season

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama today proposed new spending on the nation’s infrastructure, tax credits for small businesses to spur hiring and incentives to make homes more energy efficient in a plan to cut the jobless rate. Full Story »

RICHMOND, Va. - Even with hard times assured for public schools and other state-supported ventures, Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine's bid to end tax breaks to help balance an underfunded budget will get nowhere in a Republican-run House of Delegates, the top GOP budget writer said Tuesday. Full Story »

President Obama on Tuesday proposed additional tax breaks for small businesses and spending focused on infrastructure projects and energy conservation as a way to create jobs. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday offered modest steps to spur jobs and defended his push to get the U.S. economy growing, amid deep public dismay over double-digit unemployment that has eroded his popularity. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a new program designed to ignite jobs growth and fight the "human tragedy" of high unemployment, while vowing to control the exploding deficit. Full Story »

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - H&R Block Inc. reported a smaller fiscal second-quarter loss than a year ago on Tuesday as the nation's largest tax preparer trimmed expenses and saw its tax services business improve. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has sharp criticism for Republicans, taking them to task for opposing economic stimulus efforts and health care reform while supporting tax cuts and spending that have ballooned the deficit. Full Story »

BATON ROUGE, La. - The rules governing Louisiana's film tax credit program are formally in place, after getting approval from the Legislature's tax committees. Full Story »

SALEM, Ore. - Anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore said Monday he wants to be tried quickly on tax evasion charges so he can run for governor next year. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic senators sought on Friday to lower the amount of compensation on which executives of health insurers would have to pay taxes by amending healthcare reform legislation before the Senate. Full Story »

INDIANAPOLIS - State tax collections were once again significantly below projections in November, prompting Gov. Mitch Daniels to announce more budget reductions, including $150 million in cuts to Indiana's public colleges and universities. Full Story »

Michael Sohn, a longtime aide to former Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), has been indicted on embezzlement and tax evasion charges. Sohn, who is accused of embezzling campaign money, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. Full Story »

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire will definitely propose a tax package to avoid the deepest cuts in state spending needed to fill a $2.6 billion state budget deficit. The only remaining questions: Whom to tax, and how much to raise. Full Story »

PIERRE, S.D. - The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday auctioned off a large swath of land owned by an impoverished Indian tribe to help pay off more than $3 million in back taxes, penalties and interest — a sale the tribe says is illegal under federal laws protecting Indian land. Full Story »

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday prodded large U.S. banks to boost lending to Main Street and cautiously welcomed news of an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate. Full Story »

To spark private-sector growth that creates jobs, Treasury Sec'y Timothy Geithner said it was vital to reduce budget deficits -- $1.4 tril in fiscal '09 -- and predicted it will start happening in 2011. (The end of stimulus and Bush tax cuts on the rich, along with presumably stronger economic growth, will see to that). He's vowed to lower the deficit to 3% of GDP in the "medium term," but the fin'l system must be repaired first before cuts can be made. Under current budget forecasts, deficit-to-GDP will not fall below 3% in any year over the next decade. Full Story »

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's new public worker pension plan is being described as both landmark reform that will save taxpayers billions of dollars and the latest gift to powerful state employee unions. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department asked a court on Wednesday for permission to seek the names of American clients of Texas financier Allen Stanford who may be hiding assets abroad to evade taxes. Full Story »