National Taxpayer Advocate: IRS has restored service to pre-pandemic levels. In her mid-year report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote, “The IRS has now delivered two filing seasons that demonstrate the agency has restored service to pre-pandemic levels and has improved in most, but not all, areas of service.” The report also noted key taxpayer challenges, including delayed refunds to identity theft victims, misleading telephone measures that lead to poor resource allocation decisions, and delayed processing of Employee Retention Credit claims. The report stresses the importance of technology upgrades to IRS operations.
Pennsylvania’s sales tax revenues are up, corporate tax revenues are down. TaxNotes reports (paywall) that sales and use tax revenue in the Keystone State exceeded initial projections for fiscal year 2024 by $288 million, for a total of $45.49 billion. Corporate net income tax revenue is projected to fall short of initial forecasts by $45 million, for a total of $5.65 billion.
Connecticut lawmakers may modify the state’s car tax. During their two-day special session, legislators are discussing a bill that would change how vehicles are taxed, based on a standardized measure of a car’s depreciation over time. Lawmakers aim to prevent what happened during the pandemic: Car taxes increased rapidly because the value of used cars surged. Lawmakers will also vote on a bill that would continue requiring commercial vehicles to be taxed as motor vehicles, not as a business’s personal property.
Kenya’s president withdraws tax hike bill. After 22 people were killed during protests of the legislation, Kenya’s President William Ruto withdrew the bill that would have increased taxes. He said it was clear that Kenyans “want nothing” to do with the bill and he will not sign it into law.
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