Stephen Ohlemacher

Read the latest stories and analysis from Stephen Ohlemacher.

IRS vendor owed $525 million in back taxes

Stephen Ohlemacher · December 17, 2013 9:26 pm

John Koskinen, President Barack Obama's choice to head the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013, before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination. Koskinen, 74, is a retired corporate and government official with experience managing numerous organizations in crisis. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

IRS nominee on track for approval despite acrimony

Stephen Ohlemacher · December 10, 2013 9:10 pm

President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the new health care law, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. The president said his signature health care law "is working and will work into the future." Obama said the benefits of the law have "gotten lost" in recent months as attention focused on the widespread problems that crippled the website where people can sign up for health insurance. On stage with the president are Americans the White House says have gained as a result of the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Audit: Health care subsidies vulnerable to fraud

Stephen Ohlemacher · December 3, 2013 10:28 pm

Key Dem pushes tax reform amid partisan bickering

Stephen Ohlemacher · November 19, 2013 9:06 pm

Democratic budget negotiators in Congress see cutting tax breaks as a politically popular way to raise revenues and ease spending cuts without further swelling the deficit. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Ending tax breaks eyed as way to ease budget cuts

Stephen Ohlemacher · November 15, 2013 5:00 am

This photo taken March 22, 2013, shows the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington. The IRS issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds last year to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to a Treasury report released Thursday. The IRS sent a total of 655 tax refunds to a single address in Lithuania, and 343 refunds went to a lone address in Shanghai. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Report: IRS refunded $4B to identity thieves

Associated Press, Stephen Ohlemacher · November 7, 2013 9:16 pm

Treasury loosen rules on health spending accounts

Stephen Ohlemacher · October 31, 2013 9:36 pm

This undated handout image provided by the Social Security Administration shows a prepaid MasterCard debit card that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients who do not have bank accounts have the option of getting with their benefits instead of a paper check. The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation that will be released Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Social Security Administration)

Social Security benefits to go up by 1.5 percent

Stephen Ohlemacher · October 30, 2013 7:43 pm

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2013, file photo reporters surround Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as he walks to the Senate floor after meeting with Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans in Congress don't usually fight for tax increases, especially ones that are part of President Barack Obama's health care law. But GOP senators balked when Democrats proposed delaying a new temporary fee on everyone covered by health insurance. So employers, insurance companies and other health plan sponsors are in line to pay $63 a person next year for everyone who has coverage. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

Here’s a tax increase Republican lawmakers support

Stephen Ohlemacher · October 28, 2013 7:42 am

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., proposed delaying the fee in recent budget talks with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. (AP/ Evan Vucci)

Roles reversed as GOP fights for insurance tax

Stephen Ohlemacher · October 28, 2013 4:00 am

A recent report by the IRS inspector general says the agency has given out somewhere between $110 billion and $132 billion in improper Earned Income Tax Credit payments in the last decade. In that time period, between 21and 30 percent of tax credit payments went to people who didn't qualify for them. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

700 IRS contract workers owe $5.4m in back taxes

Associated Press, Stephen Ohlemacher · October 23, 2013 4:00 am

Shutdown causes IRS to delay tax filing season

Stephen Ohlemacher · October 22, 2013 9:09 pm