Tax News

[at MarketWatch] - Pending home sales in July rose 5.2% from downwardly revised June levels, the National Association of Realtors reports, though the indicator shows the market for existing homes is still depressed after the expiration of a key tax benefit.

[at MarketWatch] - Political uncertainty about taxes and the costs of hiring workers is holding back the U.S. economy, Dallas Fed chief Richard Fisher tells a Houston audience.

[at MarketWatch] - Political uncertainty about taxes and the costs of hiring workers is holding back the U.S. economy, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. What is restraining the economy is not a shortage of current liquidity; rather, it is uncertainty, high household debt burdens and a lack of confidence in future income growth, said Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, in speech in Houston.

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Japan Ministry Ponders Rise in Fossil-Fuel Tax Japan s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it plans to propose raising taxes on fossil fuels to fund initiatives to fight climate change, beginning in the fiscal year starting April 2011.

On Wall Street, a Jump on Bonuses Some financial-services firms are considering paying year-end bonuses this year rather than in 2011, as the specter of higher taxes looms.

The Federal Reserve plans to reduce AIG s credit line by about $3.6 billion, in a sign of growing confidence that the government bailed-out insurer can emerge out of taxpayer support, Bloomberg said, citing a person with knowledge of the proposal.

* Budget on track, no plans for new taxes * Deficit not to exceed the 2010 plan of 2 pct of GDP DUBAI, Aug 22 - Dubai s government budget deficit for 2010 could be smaller than a projected two percent of GDP, the head of the emirate s budget committee said late on Sunday.

If the Bush tax cuts for the majority of Americans are extended, and stimulus spending is allowed to continue, that could boost the economy and help lower unemployment in the near term, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.

Greece is delivering fiscal and structural reforms on time but must crack down harder on tax evasion, a monitoring team from the European Union and International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

Beazer Homes USA Inc. posted a loss in its fiscal third quarter, as Americans rushed to buy homes as federal tax credits expired in April but held back in later months.

BIG MISTAKE: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans -- families making more than $250,000 annually -- would be a mistake that would cost the country $700 billion over the next decade.

Letting tax cuts for wealthy Americans, which were implemented under President George W. Bush, expire would not hurt the economy because such breaks for top-tier earners does not do much to stimulate economic growth, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday rejected suggestions that Congress extend the tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year until the economy recovers. In a speech at the Center for American Progress, Geithner said global investors would see the extension as a sign that the U.S. was not serious about deficit reduction.

A series of missteps by the Fed, Congress and Treasury officials has left U.S. taxpayers holding the bag in the TARP program.

The U.S. Treasury Department is assuming that Congress will let tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire at year-end and that it will take in billions of dollars more, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Congress needs concrete plans for tax cuts, stimulus and deficit control because inaction dooms the economy to slow growth, a panel of economists told lawmakers on Tuesday.

People are fed up with bank bailouts that risk taxpayer billions. The government's apparent solution: call them something else.

Despite what you hear, savvy investors can still earn stable after-tax income.

The Treasury launched nine consultations on Tuesday relating to tax and pensions.