tax news

By Jessica Wohl (Reuters) - Target Corp cut its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday while turning in a weak first quarter with disappointing sales, as a chilly start to spring kept shoppers from buying seasonal items like clothing. Target warned in April its first-quarter results would be weaker than anticipated, and its performance was even worse than revised Wall Street expectations due to the cool weather and the impact of higher payroll taxes on spending. Shares of Target fell 3.6 percent to $68.70. First-quarter sales at stores open at least a year fell 0. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department's No. 2 official told Congress on Wednesday that his agency played no role in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Summoned by Congress, a key figure in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups plans to invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination and decline to testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a scandal about the targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny, plans to assert her constitutional right not to answer questions from a congressional committee on Wednesday. "She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course," Lerner's attorney, William Taylor, wrote on Monday to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that is holding hearings into the IRS scandal. ...

By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lois Lerner, an Internal Revenue Service official who revealed that the agency was giving extra scrutiny to conservative groups, will assert her constitutional right not to answer questions from a congressional committee on Wednesday, her lawyer said in a letter obtained by Reuters. ...

For more on corporate taxes, see Kyle's recent study "U.S. Multinationals Paid More Than $100 Billion in Foreign Income Taxes."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former head of the Internal Revenue Service said he first learned in the spring of 2012 — in the heat of the presidential campaign — that agents had improperly targeted political groups that vehemently opposed President Barack Obama's policies.

For more on corporate taxes, see the recent study by economist Kyle Pomerleau "U.S. Multinationals Paid More Than $100 Billion in Foreign Income Taxes."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who led the Internal Revenue Service when it was giving extra scrutiny to tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status told Congress on Tuesday that he knew little about what was happening while he was still commissioner.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups was "unacceptable and inexcusable" and he has directed the agency's acting director to hold people accountable.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former head of the Internal Revenue Service told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday he was "dismayed" to learn that the tax agency had subjected conservative groups to extra scrutiny under his watch. At a congressional hearing, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said he was unaware in June 2011 about the targeting, and only found out the full scope and severity of the activity when a Treasury Department watchdog published its report. "The full set of facts around these circumstances came out last week ... until that point I did not have a full set of facts," he said. ...