Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

President Bush on December 26 signed an omnibus fiscal year (FY) 2008 appropriations bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (HR 2764), funding federal government operations through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2008. The president, in a written statement, said the appropriations package funds the federal government with the spending levels he requested in his fiscal year 2008 budget but he was critical of the number of spending projects that were slipped into the final measure.
The president noted that Congress included nearly 9,800 earmarks totaling $10 billion in the appropriations package. "These projects are not funded through a merit-based process and provide a vehicle for wasteful federal spending," the president said. Bush recently directed Office of Management and Budget (OM Director Jim Nussle to look into ways the executive branch could take action to eliminate specific earmarks from appropriations bills.
The new law includes FY 2008 funding for the Treasury and the IRS. Funding for the Treasury Department totals $12 billion, of which $10.9 billion is allocated for the IRS. The IRS funding for FY 2008 exceeds its previous year budget by $300 million. The IRS budget includes: $4.8 billion for enforcement activities, $2.2 billion for taxpayer services, $3.7 billion for operations support of enforcement, taxpayer service, and other functions and $267 million for business systems modernization
By Paula Cruickshank, CCH News Staff