TIGTA finds poor IT management is costing the IRS billions. In a new report, Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the agency’s failed to properly prioritize computer programming requests. This resulted in billions of dollars in lost tax revenues—mostly from corporations-- taxpayers not receiving proper credits, and the IRS having to pay a large amount of interest due to withholding that was not credited to taxpayer accounts.
Bipartisan Policy Center: US could default on its debt in first half of September In a debt limit update released yesterday, BPC projected the US could run out of borrowing authority in a little more than two months. BPC calculates Treasury may still be able to take “extraordinary measures” or borrow internally until October, but says there is “significant risk” that it will hit the debt limit in September, when lawmakers will likely also be battling over the budget and a government shutdown. This, BPC says with some understatement, “raises considerable political stakes."
New York’s Governor signs a bill authorizing release of elected officials’ tax returns to Congress. Yesterday the Democrat Andrew Coumo signed bills that give the Commissioner of the state Department of Taxation and Finance the authority to give, upon written request by three congressional committees, state tax return information of individuals elected to federal, state, and local offices and those in high-level public offices. House Ways & Means Committee Chair Richard Neal already has said he is not interested in taking up New York on its offer.
Make the Road needs to make good on its tax bills. The Make the Road Action Fund lost its tax-exempt status in 2012 after failing to file 990 forms for three consecutive years. But the organization continued to behave as if it still was tax-exempt. It filed 990 forms in New York in 2015, 2016 and 2017 as a 501(c)4 entity, stating that management was unaware that it had any income or business tax liability. The fund—which criticized tax breaks for Amazon during the retailer’s search for a second headquarters—could face tens of thousands of dollars in federal, state and New York City tax liabilities.
What will Massachusetts towns do with their pot tax revenue? Between February and April, the state’s new 3 percent tax on retail pot sales generated $530,000 in revenue for Northampton, nearly $226,000 for Great Barrington, and just over $163,000 for Easthampton. Northampton mayor David Narkewicz has been managing expectations. “I'm trying to caution people that it's not going to solve all of our financial woes, and that in the early going.” Another resident said, “You can't count your chickens before they hatch… I think to try to determine now where they're going to use the money is a little premature.” Other states and towns, take note.
Poland may exempt most young workers from income tax. The nation’s lawmakers want to prevent young people from leaving for other European Union countries in search of higher paying jobs. A new bill would exempt workers under age 26 from Poland’s 18 percent personal income tax, as long as their gross earnings don’t exceed $22,500 a year, or 85,500 zlotys. The average income in Poland is 60,000 zlotys. If enacted, the measure would affect about two million people beginning August 1.
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