Tax brief: IRS lost email investigation continues, while gas tax could be phased out
IRS commissioner John Koskinen appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the loss of former Treasury official Lois Lerner鈥檚 emails and crash of her hard drive. Meanwhile, the federal gasoline tax could be phased and leave the Highway Trust Fundthe House Ways and Means Committee plans to vote on indexing the $1,000 child tax credit.
IRS commissioner John Koskinen appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the loss of former Treasury official Lois Lerner鈥檚 emails and crash of her hard drive. Meanwhile, the federal gasoline tax could be phased and leave the Highway Trust Fundthe House Ways and Means Committee plans to vote on indexing the $1,000 child tax credit.
Deja vu all over again, and then some.聽IRS Commissioner聽John Koskinen, who began his tenure at IRS in December,聽testified last night聽before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for聽about four聽hours on聽the loss of former Treasury official Lois Lerner鈥檚 emails and the聽crash of her hard drive. House GOP members believe that the hard drive was intentionally destroyed. They accused the Commissioner of lying and hiding the 鈥渟poliation of evidence,鈥� and also tested his knowledge of criminal statute, statistics, and vocabulary. Representative Elijah Cummings likened the hearing to 鈥渉ell.鈥� Its sequel begins聽this聽morning:聽White House attorney聽Jennifer O鈥機onnor聽and National Archivist David Ferriero聽will appear.
The federal Highway Trust Fund? Some want to call the whole thing off.聽Last week saw the release of聽a bipartisan bill聽to raise the federal gasoline tax and replenish the near-broke Highway Trust Fund. But this summer, stay tuned for聽renewed attention聽on last year鈥檚 House and Senate GOP bills to phase out the federal gasoline tax and turn over most of the federal transportation program to states. The聽Senate聽and聽House聽proposals would reduce the tax from 18.4 cents per gallon to 3.7 cents per gallon over five years.
But the Child Tax Credit could be expanded.聽Kansas Republican Representative Lynn Jenkins聽has a new bill聽that would index the $1,000聽child tax credit聽and income cutoffs to inflation and remove a聽marriage penalty. The House Ways and Means Committee plans to vote on聽the bill tomorrow.
Your life insurance benefits could cover your former colleagues鈥� pensions.聽As much of 20 percent of all new life insurance policies are聽taken out by companies on their employees. The cash surrender value of policies Bank of America has taken on its employees is nearly $18 billion. The聽premiums, investment returns on the policies, and death benefits are tax deductible. Companies and banks say those dollars cover the costs of long-term health care, deferred compensation, and pension obligations. But companies and banks can聽use the tax-free gains however they want.
There鈥檚 a new tax sheriff in town, in Greece.聽After the country鈥檚 top tax official abruptly resigned after barely a year. Katarina Savvaidou, a lawyer and聽 senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been聽named to the post. Greece has committed to reform its tax system and raise tax revenues as a condition of its $326 billion bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.