local budget

Rising interest rates are squeezing cash-strapped towns and school systems that use short-term borrowing to keep cash flowing while they wait for property tax dollars to come in.  A-rated cities and school districts are paying 3.16% for a one-year loan issued March 3, compared with 0.21% at the beginning of 2022, according to data from Refinitiv MMD. In places where local budgets are already burdened by inflation, rising borrowing costs add to the pressure to raise taxes or cut services.…

The U.S. economy started the year with surprising vigor, thanks partly to rising household incomes and consumer resilience.Slowing inflation, pay raises negotiated last year, cost-of-living adjustments for retirees and state tax cuts have lined up to lift consumer purchasing power, fortifying spending and economic growth at a time when many analysts were predicting a slowdown or even recession. This marks a turnabout for households that were squeezed last year by high inflation, climbing interest rates and the end of…

A national shortage of accountants is prompting small and midsize firms to hire overseas for the first time as they seek workers to audit U.S. companies’ books and prepare Americans’ tax returns.Large firms such as KPMG LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP have long hired international accountants to support client work. Now, with tax season poised to kick off, small and midsize accounting outfits that serve family businesses, individuals and smaller companies say they are offshoring jobs as local recruiting pipelines dry…

Many of the nation’s largest nonprofit hospital systems, which give aid to poorer communities to earn tax breaks, have been leaving those areas and moving into wealthier ones as they have added and shed hospitals in the last two decades. As nonprofits, these regional and national giants reap $8.8 billion from tax breaks annually, by one Johns Hopkins University researcher’s estimate. Among their obligations, they are expected to provide free medical care to those least able to afford it. Many top nonprofits,…

HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s chief executive announced incentives to lure talent and companies to the city, seeking to reverse an outflow driven by years of stringent pandemic controls and political upheaval that have hurt its reputation as a global business capital. John Lee, who took the city’s top office in July, unveiled plans to give two-year visas to high earners and graduates from the world’s top 100 universities, tax breaks to some foreign property buyers who go on to become permanent…

WASHINGTON—Business owners are likely saving more than $10 billion annually in federal taxes through state laws that circumvent the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of state data.The state laws blunt the cap’s effect on owners of closely held businesses such as law firms, hedge funds, manufacturers and car dealerships, while workers earning wages generally can’t take advantage. The strategy, now available in 27 states, converts business owners’ personal income…

The new U.K. “energy profits levy” shows how easily policy can be usurped by politics, bringing more unpredictability to the energy transition. The new U.K. “energy profits levy” shows how easily policy can be usurped by politics, bringing more unpredictability to the energy transition. FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS Read original article here Denial of responsibility! Techno Blender is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All…