Complex steps for claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit and a lack of awareness about the benefit are the most common reasons why taxpayers fail to claim it, according to H&R Block.H&R Block, which prepared one of every four tax returns claiming the EITC in 2006, helped more than 5 million taxpayers claim nearly $10 billion in EITC benefits last year. Still, the IRS estimates that nearly a quarter of those who qualify don't claim the valuable credit, leaving as much as $1 billion unclaimed.The EITC offsets income taxes as a work incentive for low-income Americans.

In early January 2007, the Niagara County, New York, Industrial Development Agency (IDA) granted a history-making Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT). Henry Sloma, Chairperson of the Niagara County IDA (NCIDA), and Kevin Pierce, Vice President and Director of the AES NY, LLC, signed allegedly legal paperwork that removes the profitable coal fired power plant, locally known as AES Somerset, from the tax rolls. Industrial Development Agencies normally grant tax cuts to companies in the form of Payment in Lieu of Taxes for two reasons: 1.

The Hawaiian 2005-2007 Tax Review Commission has finished its review of its tax structure and issued its final report to the Legislature. The Hawaii Reporter reports some 23 recommendations were made, covering individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and tax professionals.

Accounting firms that are considering moving from their existing locations are getting a lot of help from local governments who want to retain or attract professional firms to their communities. Whitinger Properties, a long established accounting firm in Muncie, Indiana, received $120,890 in tax breaks this week from the Muncie City Council on a new $2.3 million office building in Ontario Place, the StarPress.com reports.

Residents of states that do not levy income tax, college students and their families, teachers and many high-tech companies, are among the beneficiaries of the tax and trade bill passed by the House on Friday and the Senate on Saturday morning at 4 a.m. Earlier in the week, the Senate extended the term of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction which was set up by Congress to provide oversight of the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund and all obligations, expenditures, and revenues associated with reconstruction and rehabilitation activities in Iraq.

Volunteer bell-ringers in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, want to bring in enough donations to help pay for holiday food baskets for 900 needy families in the region this year, says Major Marie Harris, Community Relations and Program Development Officer in Williamsport. Fifty local businesses have joined in the fundraising effort by participating in the Festival of Trees, donating and decorating trees in the Lycoming Mall that will be auctioned in mid-December for the benefit of the Salvation Army.

Accounting firms are in the business of providing services to firms and organizations, even school districts, apparently. The Flint [Michigan] Journal reports that the firm Plante & Moran has signed a contract to perform the functions of their departed chief financial officer (CFO) until June 30, 2007, or until a new CFO is selected by the district. By the terms of the contract, Plante & Moran receive $14,000 a month, the salary and benefits for its former CFO, according to district officials.

When Hawaii’s state legislature decided to allow county governments on each of the four islands to vote separately on a .5 percent rate hike in the state’s general excise tax (GET), currently at 4 percent, to pay for the proposed mass transit system serving Honolulu, it was trying to avoid making taxpayers on all four islands pay the hike, according to Lowell L. Kalapa, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii .

The Washington-based Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) released their 2006 small-business survival study last week. The Warren (Ohio) Tribune Chronicle reports their results compare states for the tax, spending, regulatory and litigation burdens, according to the council’s chief economist Raymond Keating.Small businesses and the spirit of entrepreneurship are important for our economy. Any policies that affect the health and growth of businesses should be examined more closely for obstacles to this sector’s vitality.