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Byline: BILL SHEA AND DUSTIN WALSH There's been a steady trickle of automotive suppliers based outside Michigan taking advantage of tax breaks to launch or expand operations locally to be [...]

Byline: AMY LANE Southeast Michigan businesspeople want to see the Michigan Business Tax reduced -- but not necessarily at the expense of a worsening state structural budget deficit. A recent [...]

Byline: Amy Lane Businesses that have delinquent tax liabilities might want to put May 15 on their calendars. That's when the state will begin a 45-day tax amnesty period that [...]

Balance tax credits with growth policies It's an election year, and politicians and policy wonks are engaging in the time-honored tradition of trashing one another's pet policies. Front and center [...]

Byline: Amy Lane Michigan's main business tax is headed for a shakeup or death, depending on whom Michigan elects as its next governor. At the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of [...]

Byline: BILL SHEA Pinnacle Race Course in Wayne County's Huron Township hasn't paid a combined $1.46 million in property taxes for 2009 and 2010 because it didn't receive its tax [...]

Byline: SHERRI WELCH The long-awaited 990 tax forms for nonprofits muddied the picture of compensation trends in 2008. All nonprofits that file a 990 should use a new form for [...]

Byline: AMY LANE Michigan faces an estimated $140 million interest bill next year stemming from its federal unemployment borrowing, and that could mean additional taxes starting in January for thousands [...]

Byline: AMY LANE Michigan's signature $100 million-apiece tax credits to attract advanced battery cell manufacturing operations have brought six projects to the state. But they've also brought criticism for their [...]

Byline: Amy Lane Tobacco distributors may be close to eliminating what they've seen as a costly problem in Michigan's business tax that passed in 2007. Senate Bill 361, which gained [...]

Byline: SHAWN WRIGHT One proponent of a statewide ballot proposal to add new casinos in Michigan is moving ahead full speed, while a competing proposal remains a moving target. The [...]

Byline: Amy Lane The idea of extending Michigan's sales tax to consumer services finds some receptivity in Southeast Michigan, a new poll shows. The issue was one of two questions [...]

Byline: CHAD HALCOM Royal Oak may venture into uncharted legal waters this week when it starts implementing a new oversight practice for its Downtown Development Authority in the wake of [...]

Byline: AMY LANE Five companies plan to invest $79.4 million and bring just shy of 4,000 jobs to the Detroit area over the next few years in a series of [...]

Byline: CHAD HALCOM The financial noose around local governments will keep tightening for at least two more years, and those shedding jobs and services to balance their budgets will not [...]

City needs tax policy to boost farm plans It's early, but Detroit could be the comeback story of this very young decade. But it could be farming not auto manufacturing [...]

Byline: BILL SHEA Several questions have arisen about efforts by backers of Wonderstruck Studios L.L.C. to lease space for an animation facility inside Ford Field, but one has been cleared [...]

The First Step Fund is the latest in a series of recent efforts at helping fund startups and young businesses. They include: Michigan House Bill No. 5921, introduced March 3, [...]

Byline: SHERRI WELCH While the federal estate tax repeal has created a lot of uncertainty, the implementation of the new Michigan Trust Code on April 1 will help clarify state [...]

Byline: Amy Lane Michigan businesses may get a reprieve from having to file years of back tax returns that, until recently, weren't required. Passed unanimously by the state House last [...]

Byline: AMY LANE Bills that would provide for tax abatements for construction or renovation of LEED-certified buildings are being discussed in Lansing, as lawmakers look at ways to promote community [...]

Byline: Amy Lane The legislative ping-pong over funding the state's Pure Michigan tourism campaign is continuing. The state House is preparing to act on the latest set of bills to [...]

State board OKs forms for casino petition drives The Board of State Canvassers on Friday approved petition forms for two groups seeking casinos to move forward with drives to put [...]

A traditional IRA allows money to be set aside tax free and federal income taxes paid when money is taken out. Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax income, but profits [...]

Byline: SHERRI WELCH Financial planners say there's a lot of uncertainty swirling around estate planning right now because of a 2001 law that repealed this year's federal estate tax. Congress [...]

The repeal of the federal estate tax and the generation-skipping tax are highlights of a year of uncertainty in estate planning. Potential challenges to estates: The unintentional disinheritance of a [...]

Efforts to diversify Michigan's economy paid some significant dividends in alternative energy in 2009. The most eye-catching was planning by two companies, lured by state tax credits and other assistance, [...]

For months, Crain's, other news media, business associations and 'good-government groups have hammered away at telling us all the ways Michigan is broken. The consensus: Michigan just doesn't work anymore [...]

Framework for a redevelopment authority aimed at helping Detroit and Wayne County turn around tax-reverted properties is moving into view in the Legislature. Initial bills announced last week are part [...]

Lawmakers are looking into offering a tax amnesty period that could waive penalties on businesses and residents that have overdue taxes and bring in money that could help the state [...]

A new proposal to lower Michigan's sales tax and expand it to services is edging onto the Capitol landscape, with House Speaker Andy Dillon saying he supports the direction it [...]

Business groups are gearing up to fight tax increases that could start to move this week, even as they haven't known what those items will be. State House Democrats have [...]

Where are MEGA jobs? study asks The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is renewing criticism of the state's main business tax-incentive program, releasing a study showing the Michigan Economic Growth [...]

It wasn't mentioned in the bevy of tax-related press releases flying around the Capitol last week, but a repeal of the Michigan Business Tax surcharge remains on some lists as [...]

Southeast Michigan real estate will lose around $20 billion, or 10 percent of its aggregate taxable value, in 2010 leaving county governments scrambling to balance budgets by slashing employee wages, [...]

As news of budget-plugging proposals reported to be under consideration by Gov. Jennifer Granholm leaked out last week, Southeast Michigan's business community debated the impact the potential changes could have [...]

The fate of key business tax credits that the state wants to award this year remains in play in the Capitol as dozens of pending projects await the legislative outcome. [...]

A bill that could boost development around transit stations aiding new mass transit in Southeast Michigan and elsewhere is among transportation-related funding options resurfacing in the Legislature. House Bill 4967 [...]

The cost of filing state tax appeals could be going up. The Michigan Tax Tribunal is proposing fee increases that would make the court completely self-funded and raise an additional [...]

Tax credits running out; MEDC seeks fresh batch The state soon could run out of its ability to offer tax credits under its main business tax-incentive program. The Michigan Economic [...]

No transit opt-outs Transit supporters, including the Michigan Municipal League, are pushing state lawmakers to create 'transit investment zones. As Amy Lane reports on Page 17, future increases in property [...]

Opponents call it a tax loophole in need of a fix. Supporters call it upholding Proposal A and the state constitution. Whatever the label, lawmakers in the state House have [...]

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority has approved tax breaks for five area businesses among 15 across the state. The local projects include: * More than $2.5 million in state tax [...]

The following are highlights from Crain's late week Web coverage of the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference. To read complete versions of these stories and other online coverage, go [...]

Six Detroit-area businesses approved for state tax credits The Michigan Economic Growth Authority board has approved tax credits for the following Southeast Michigan projects, which are part of the $103 [...]

There's no single silver bullet to improving Michigan's transportation system, according to businesspeople polled in preparation for the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference. And replacing Michigan's 19-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax [...]

A new political turf war is brewing in Southeast Michigan at a time the region can least afford it. As Chad Halcom reports on Page 1, Wayne County Executive Bob [...]

For $312 a year, merchants on East Warren Avenue can obtain the services of a Clean Team to pick up trash from the Detroit business district's streets. The price tag [...]

State officials are floating a proposal to fund tourism and business marketing by tapping new sales tax revenue and an assessment on airport car rentals. The goal: To provide a [...]