Automation platform Quadient announced the acquisition of Serensia, a French electronic invoicing platform provider accredited by the French government as a Partner Dematerialization Platform (PDP). With ownership of a Peppol access point—a secure gateway for document exchange—Quadient can now offer a compliant, end-to-end e-invoicing solution to the millions of companies across Europe that will be required to transition to electronic invoicing under upcoming regulatory mandates. … Accounting solutions provider Sage announced a partnership with CPA.com which licenses select AICPA resources to train Sage Copilot, its generative AI assistant designed to support accountants and finance teams with authoritative, context-aware guidance. The announcement was made at Sage Future, the company’s flagship global customer event, held this week in Atlanta. … Small business accounting platform Xero announced that users who have an account with payments company Stripe can now use Tap To Pay on iPhone, enabling Xero customers in the US with a Stripe account to seamlessly and securely accept in-person contactless payments with their iPhone and the Xero Accounting app — no additional hardware or payment terminal needed. Tap to Pay on iPhone enables businesses to accept all forms of contactless payments, including contactless credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, and other digital wallets. … Trust and security compliance automation solutions provider Scytale announced the acquisition of AudITech, a provider of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) IT General Controls (ITGC) automation solutions, which integrates with a company’s IT General Control system and audits all controls and populations daily. This acquisition will enable Scytale to offer security, privacy, and AI compliance automation for standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and now SOX ITGC in one platform. … Business aviation solutions provider MySky is acquiring the State Tax Guide from Jet Support Services Inc (JSSI), significantly expanding the capabilities of its MySky Tax solution. This acquisition offers users comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date U.S. state aviation tax information, which will soon be seamlessly embedded within the platform. … Accounting firm-focused payments solutions provider CPACharge announced a new partnership with SafeSend, part of Thomson Reuters. This new partnership will make it easier for tax and accounting firms to get paid as clients receive their tax returns, as well as allows firms to embed CPACharge directly into the workflow for SafeSend One, SafeSend’s flagship product.

President Donald Trump told Senate Republicans he is open to a state and local tax deduction cap lower than the $40,000 in the House-passed version of his giant tax bill, a person familiar with the matter said. 

Trump signaled his position in a meeting with Senate Finance Committee Republicans on Wednesday, and the comments added momentum to Senate GOP efforts to enact a lower SALT cap. 

That push has led to resistance from the House, with Speaker Mike Johnson telling Bloomberg TV Thursday he is fighting to keep the $40,000 cap as it is. 

After the White House meeting Wednesday, Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo lamented about the cost of the House bill’s SALT cap. 

“There’s not a single Republican senator from New York, New Jersey or California, so there’s not a strong sentiment in the Republican conference to do $350 billion for states that the other states subsidize,” Crapo told reporters.   

Crapo’s top priority for the Senate tax bill is extending a bevy of temporary business tax breaks in the House bill that would expire after 2029, including enhanced interest expensing and deductions on research, development and equipment. Crapo is looking to trim other aspects of the House bill in order to offset the added cost of making those breaks permanent. 

He said that a decision had not yet been made on whether to lower the SALT cap or to what level. Under current law, individuals and couples can deduct $10,000 in state and local taxes if they itemize on their tax returns. 

Johnson said that the higher cap is crucial for the House to be able to pass the final version of the tax bill when it is sent back from the Senate later in the summer. He said he has made that clear to the Senate GOP.

“I told my friends I am crossing the Grand Canyon on a piece of dental floss,” he said.

The Washington Post first reported Trump’s openness to a smaller cap. 

“The White House is working closely with leaders in Congress to ensure that this landmark legislation gets over the finish line,” said spokesperson Kush Desai.

Employment grew by 139,000 jobs in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.2%.

Employment continued to grow in the health care, leisure and hospitality and social assistance sectors, but the federal government continued to lose jobs as the Trump administration kept up its efforts to slash the workforce. The professional and business services sector lost 18,000 jobs in May, but added 3,100 in accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services. 

Average hourly earnings increased 15 cents, or 0.4%, to $36.24 in May. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased 3.9%. 

“Really only two sectors made up the bulk of all job growth — health care and social assistance (+78K) and leisure and hospitality (+48K),” said Andrew Flowers, chief economist at Appcast. “The ‘diffusion index’ (which measures the breadth of job growth) fell near the lowest point of this cycle. Beyond those sectors, there were signs that professional and business services job growth has weakened further, with the three-month moving average now negative. Moreover, the DOGE-led effort to trim government bureaucrats is having real effects, with a -22K job contraction in the federal workforce.”

As part of those cuts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics itself has been cutting back on its collection of consumer data for measures such as the Consumer Price Index, which could affect the reliability of some of its data. The BLS has also been getting lower response rates in recent years to its surveys, which could affect the reliability of its data. “They’re getting a lot less data than they used to, so those things add up to probably some volatility in the numbers that come out,” said Frank Fiorille, vice president of risk, compliance and data analytics at Paychex.