News_Featured // Current TV

Darfur Killings Continue: Peacekeeper Shot Dead

A peacekeeper with the joint UN-African Union force (Unamid) in Sudan's western... more

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Skiiing Accident Leaves Natasha Richardson Brain Dead

UPDATE 1:58 p.m.: The following post appeared earlier this afternoon with the headline... more

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Madagascan president hands power to military

Madagascar's president has ceded power to his military and the country's... more

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IRS to give refunds to some Madoff investors

The Internal Revenue Service is allowing tax relief and refunds for some investors who paid taxes on earnings from their investments with Bernard Madoff that turned out to be nonexistent, the head of the agency told Congress Tuesday.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said the agency is issuing guidelines for taxpayers who are victims of losses from Ponzi investment schemes such as the massive Madoff swindle.

Madoff investors should have been reporting earnings from their investments with him through the years and thus paid taxes on those earnings. Given that some of those were "phantom" profits, investors have said they should be entitled to refunds of the taxes they paid.

Investors in some of these cases are entitled to a "theft loss" deduction, not subject to the limits on normal capital losses from investments, according to the IRS guidelines, Shulman testified at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

The theft loss deduction can be taken in the year a fraud is discovered, except to the extent an investor has a reasonable prospect of recovery of the lost money, Shulman said.

Determining the amount and timing of losses from Ponzi schemes is "factually difficult" and depends on prospects for recovering the lost money, which may not become clear for years, he noted.

In Ponzi schemes, early investors are paid returns from money put in by later investors.

"Some taxpayers have argued that they should be permitted to amend tax returns for years prior to the discovery of the theft to exclude the phantom income and receive a refund of tax in those years," Shulman testified. The new IRS guidelines do not address that argument, he said.

To date, about $1 billion in assets have been identified for Madoff investors, just a small portion of the $65 billion he told his 4,800 investors that he had on hand in November. Authorities say they believe the figure included what would have existed if much smaller original investments had grown for decades.

By some estimates, the IRS could be out as much as $17 billion in lost tax revenue from refunds to investors who earned fictitious profits in the Madoff scheme...The Internal Revenue Service is allowing tax relief and refunds for some investors who... more

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Amy Winehouse Pleads Not Guilty to Assault

Singer Amy Winehouse has pleaded not guilty to assaulting a fan at a party last year.

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3 years ago
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Grassley Suggests AIG Execs Consider Suicide

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should take a... more

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Obama tries to block AIG bonuses

President Obama today blasted the plan of insurance giant AIG to pay millions of dollars in bonuses to traders who helped bring the company to the brink of ruin, calling the payments an "outrage" that violates "fundamental values" and underscores the need for financial regulatory reform.

In remarks following a meeting at the White House with small-business owners, Obama said AIG "is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed." The company has received billions of dollars in federal bailout money.

"Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," Obama said. "How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" He said he has asked Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to "pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole."

Obama added: "What this situation also underscores is the need for overall financial regulatory reform, so we don't find ourselves in this position again, and for some form of resolution mechanism in dealing with troubled financial institutions, so we've got greater authority to protect the American taxpayer and our financial system in cases such as this."

Speaking before Obama, Geithner admonished the nation's largest banks for withholding loans to many small businesses, telling the banks bluntly that they helped create the current mess and "bear a special responsibility for helping America get out of it" by increasing the flow of credit, especially since they have benefited from massive federal bailouts.

"We need you to put that assistance to work for the American economy," Geithner said. "Many banks in this country took too much risk, but the risk now to the economy is that you will take too little risk."

He said the administration will require the country's top 21 banks receiving federal assistance to include small-business loans in their monthly reports.

Geithner told the small-business owners and community bankers that the administration's new budget proposal includes provisions that nearly double -- to $250,000 -- the amount of new capital investment that can be written off on tax returns and that "reduce, and then altogether eliminate, capital gains taxes on the sale of stock in small businesses."

In addition, he said, drawing applause from the audience, the Internal Revenue Service today is announcing that small businesses will be able to carry back operating losses for five years instead of the usual two years "in order to increase your cash flow as we come out of this period and allow you to invest more in your operations."

Addressing the nation's banks, Geithner said they need to "go the extra mile in keeping credit lines in place on reasonable terms for viable businesses." He said that "by pulling back on credit, you push businesses to pull back, and this dynamic can feed on itself."

The remarks came after the administration outlined a series of measures to help the nation's small businesses weather the current economic crisis, offering reduced lending fees and up to $15 billion in extra funds to help unclog the secondary credit market...President Obama today blasted the plan of insurance giant AIG to pay millions of... more

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3 years ago
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Poll: Unemployment is Americans' top economic concern

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll indicates that worries about unemployment have... more

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3 years ago
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Prosecutors Going After Madoff's Wife

Federal prosecutors have notified a New York court that they also want the assets of... more

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3 years ago
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Austrian incest father pleads not guilty to murder

ST. POELTEN, Austria – An Austrian man accused of fathering his daughter's... more

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3 years ago
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Bernanke Says Recession Could End This Year

America's recession ``probably'' will end this year if the government... more

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3 years ago
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AIG Planning Huge Bonuses After Bailout

WASHINGTON — The American International Group, which has received more than $170... more

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3 years ago
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Don Imus Has Prostate Cancer

The 68-year-old shock jock made the surprise announcement on his morning radio show,... more

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3 years ago
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Pyongyang Pizza Parlor

North Korea further cements itself as the weirdest place on Earth.

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3 years ago
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Party of ex-rebels wins El Salvador's presidency

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - A leftist television journalist has won El Salvador's... more

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3 years ago
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Texas rejects stimulus unemployment money

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday rejected $555 million in federal stimulus money that... more

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3 years ago
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Police: U.S. teens were hit men for Mexican cartel

Rosalio Reta sits at a table inside a Laredo Police Department interrogation room. A... more

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3 years ago
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Sears Tower To Be Renamed, Become Willis Tower

"The tallest building in America is getting a new name. Chicago's Sears... more

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3 years ago
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Madoff Pleads Guilty

Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to an epic fraud that robbed investors worldwide of... more

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3 years ago
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Shoe-Throwing Journalist Gets 3 Years

The attorney for an Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at then-President George W. Bush... more

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3 years ago
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