Welcome from AboutCashFlow.com to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.
India REUTERS Danish Siddiqui
* India sees end to Vodafone tax dispute. James Blitz and Lionel Barber – The Financial Times. India’s finance minister is confident that a $2.6 billion tax dispute with Vodafone is close to being settled as the Indian government attempts to win back international investor confidence. Link
* Amazon’s growing problem. Justin Lahart – The Wall Street Journal. The holiday season really was a taxing time for Amazon.com. Texas in July and California and Pennsylvania in September started collecting online sales taxes. Together, the three states account for a quarter of the U.S. population, so a fair-sized chunk of American shoppers had one less reason to buy online. Link
* Corning CFO cheers tax extensions. Vipal Monga – The Wall Street Journal. Corning Inc. will get a slight earnings boost starting in the first quarter of this year thanks to provisions in the fiscal cliff deal reached earlier this month, according to the glass and ceramics maker’s chief financial officer. The company’s projected 2013 tax rate will be lower than earlier projections. Link
* IRS extends tax deadline for farmers, fishermen. John McKinnon – The Wall Street Journal. The Internal Revenue Service announced an extension in the filing deadline for many people who qualify as farmers or fishermen—yet another effect of the late approval of the “fiscal cliff” deal. Link
* History-rich Georgia island wins second look on taxes. Robbie Brown – The New York Times. Residents of a tiny barrier island in Georgia on Tuesday won a temporary reprieve from property tax increases that they feared would drive them from their historic community. Taxes rose by as much as 1,000 percent last year on Sapelo Island. Link
* Israel to transfer tax funds to Palestinians. Isabel Kershner – The New York Times. Israel has decided to transfer tax and customs revenues collected last month on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to help ease the economic crisis there, a senior Israeli government official said on Wednesday. Link
* In energy taxes, tools to help tackle climate change. Eduardo Porter – The New York Times opinion. Top economists agree a tax on fuels and the carbon they spew into the atmosphere would be the cheapest way to combat climate change. Most advanced countries rely on some variant of this tax. The question is whether the prospect of more droughts and more powerful hurricanes will push Americans to embrace it, too. Link
* The tax reformers. The Wall Street Journal editorial. Washington may be a tax reform wasteland, but out in the states the action is hot and heavy. Nine states—including such fast-growing places as Florida, Tennessee and Texas—currently have no income tax, and the race is on to see which will be the 10th, and perhaps the 11th and 12th. Link
Reuters