The Department of Justice announced it has reached a settlement with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, but will continue to litigate against Apple and two other publishers—Holtzbrinck Publishers and Penguin Group—for conspiring to end eBook retailers’ freedom to compete on price, take control of pricing from eBook retailers and substantially increase the prices that consumers pay for eBooks.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is trying to close the Son of Black Liquor tax loophole that has already provided U.S. paper makers with a windfall of more than $1 billion. The committee's staff estimates the move would save $2.786 billion over the next four years, which Baucus would use to help pay for highway construction and other infrastructure projects.
“This provision would prohibit taxpayers from claiming the alternative mixture credit or the cellulosic biofuels credit on any new or amended returns made on or after February 3, 2012.”
Congressman Brian Higgins recently held a press conference at Zenger Group, a printing and direct mail service provider, to oppose the scheduled closure of the Postal Service William Street facility in Buffalo, NY. That facility is the postal distribution gateway between the United States and Toronto/southern Ontario.
A favorable ruling from a Congressional committee will add millions more dollars to what U.S. pulp and paper companies gained from the infamous black liquor tax credits. KapStone Paper and Packaging announced yesterday that the Joint Committee on Taxation had accepted its position that the $186 million in black liquor credits it earned in 2009 are not taxable income. As a result, it is claiming $63.6 million in “gross unrecognized tax benefits and accrued interest expense.”
Pulp manufacturers exploited a loophole in a renewable-fuel tax credit program to gain at least $8 billion in direct payments from the federal government
“If passed today, either bill would provide at best one year of profitability, and at least a decade of steep losses,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “Unfortunately, both bills have elements that delay tough decisions and impose greater constraints on our business model.”
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has launched SavingThePostalService.com to educate the public about the Postal Service’s financial troubles and some possible solutions. U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has said that the U.S. Postal Service will default on its obligations to the federal government on September 30, at the end of the current fiscal year.
Wausau Paper’s mill in Brokaw (WI) has been a major local employer for more than a century. A company memo obtained by the Wausau Daily Herald revealed that the Brokaw mill has been losing money for almost a decade, even as the company has taken steps to cut costs there.
To be sure, part of what is happening is that the market for paper is changing. But there also are concrete changes to public policy that could help to ease the way for Wisconsin’s paper mills, and leaders at all levels of government should be working hard at putting them
AbitibiBowater discussed its future direction behind closed doors Thursday, less than a day after Quebec politicians granted pension changes required for its restructuring. The Montreal-based forestry company barred the public and media from its first annual meeting in three years and the first since it exited 20 months of creditor and bankruptcy protection in Canada and the United States.
Annual meetings are routinely open to observers in Canada. But company spokesman Pierre Choquette said the newsprint giant considered the event a private meeting “from a legal standpoint.”
“It’s a private meeting so I cannot tell you about the content of what’s
A USA TODAY editorial yesterday ranked black liquor tax credits #6 on the list of “10 terrible tax breaks” that should be eliminated or scaled back. “‘Black liquor’ = much green,” the unsigned editorial said. “Paper companies make a mockery of tax law by claiming a credit meant to promote biofuels. They take a flammable byproduct of the pulping process known as black liquor, mix it with diesel fuel and—presto!—they are promoting alternative fuels and eligible for massive tax breaks. (Cost: $6.6 billion.)”
After many months of crusading to bring to light this boondoggle for a pulp byproduct,
The cost of the “Son of Black Liquor” giveaway to U.S. pulp and paper companies officially passed $1 billion last week and could eventually grow much larger. A dozen publicly traded pulp manufacturers recently reported actual or expected federal Cellulosic Biofuel Producer Credits (CBPC) totaling $1.1 billion in their annual and quarterly reports.
That number includes only $65 million, so far, for #1 pulp manufacturer International Paper and nothing from #2 Georgia Pacific, which is privately held. Both giants seem likely to join or surpass Packaging Corp. of America, Weyerhaeuser, and Domtar, each of which recorded or expects
