BOSTON – Sen. John Kerry said he always intended to pay taxes in Massachusetts on his $7 million yacht but conceded he mishandled the public furor over his decision to dock the vessel in tax-free Rhode Island. “I don’t think I dealt with it fast enough, effectively enough. There’s nobody to blame but myself for [...]

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A year-old program granting movie studios tax breaks for filming in California has saved jobs and should yield two billion dollars in direct spending, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said. In a statement released Friday, the governor said the program was “creating and retaining tens of thousands of jobs and generating spending in [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Monday, spurred by optimism ahead of earnings from key technology companies and after Dow component Boeing announced strong orders. Investors bet on solid reports from International Business Machines (IBM.N), the world’s largest technology services provider, and chip maker Texas Instruments (TXN.N), hoping they would echo Intel’s positive results [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Home-builder sentiment fell more-than-expected in July to the lowest level in more than a year after a popular home-buyer tax credit expired in April, the National Association of Home Builders said on Monday. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index fell two points to 14, the lowest level since April 2009, the group [...]

Repeated recalls of popular Johnson & Johnson nonprescription medicines kept second-quarter revenue flat and forced J&J to cut its profit forecast, but a big drop in its tax rate enabled the healthcare giant to pull off a 7.5 percent increase in net income. In a rare move, the maker of Band-Aids, birth control and biotech [...]

DUBLIN – For two long years, the Irish have suffered through harsh government cutbacks and tax increases that have taken a fat chunk out of their take-home pay — painful medicine to avoid national bankruptcy. After all that, they’re ready to cut some more. Workers in other European countries with financial troubles are striking or [...]

DETROIT – Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded poverty Tuesday and was granted a lawyer at public expense to defend him against charges that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars collected for a charity on himself and his family. Kilpatrick waived a reading of the tax and fraud charges during his first court appearance [...]

PARIS (AFP) – French financial inspectors offered a boost to the scandal-hit government on Sunday by clearing Labour Minister Eric Woerth of accusations that he helped L’Oreal billionaire Liliane Bettencourt evade taxes. The report by the General Financial Inspection office (IGF) strengthened President Nicolas Sarkozy’s hand as he moves to calm a huge political funding [...]

TOKYO – Battered by voter backlash over the prospect of higher sales taxes, Japan’s ruling Democratic party suffered a heavy defeat in parliamentary elections Sunday, media exit polls showed, dealing a blow that could hinder the government’s ability to control soaring debt. The projected losses were worse than expected and will make it difficult for [...]

TOKYO – Japan voted in parliamentary elections Sunday as the ruling Democrats highlighted reforms and cuts in wasteful spending during their 10-month rule, while apologizing for creating “confusion and mistrust” over tax-hike talk and a dispute involving a U.S. base. The main opposition conservatives, meanwhile, said voters must act to stop the Democrats’ “wandering, reckless [...]