Italy has it the worst when it comes to taxes, according to Institut Constant de Rebecque. The Lausanne, Switzerland-based libertarian think tank ranked the country number one out of the 30 member states of the OECD on the "tax oppression index," which takes into account a number of factors from straightforward tax-burden measures to laws related to financial privacy.

Organizations are increasingly ready to jump straight into finance transformation efforts, rather than dilly-dally in discussions about the need for change, says blogger Steve Player. He credits leadership for this positive attitude change.

Craig Barrett, former chairman of Intel, offered five steps for how the U.S. could and should recover from the downturn. Among them, Barrett suggests revamping Sarbanes-Oxley, extending health insurance to all Americans, and lowering corporate taxes.

Everyone wants to find ways to do things better regardless of the size or structure of their organization, but true changes to business processes seem hard to come by. Why is it so tough? Explore this topic with Chris McKittrick, finance expert and our newest blogger on The Big Fat Finance Blog!

Social networking for businesses is taking off, as was evident at last week’s Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, because it allows workers to collaborate and knowledge share. Where will it be most useful? Social software can be applied anywhere but will work best in the areas of budgeting, customer support, governance, and compliance.

In this tight market, finance execs need to work on their liquidity management structure to improve their company's working capital. Margaret Yao, managing director with JPMorgan's liquidity solutions area, explains how.

The popularity of asset-based lending, which are loans secured by an asset, is continuing to grow. With the exception of 2001, the volume of outstanding asset-based loans has shown year-over-year growth since 1992, says Brian Cove, the Commercial Finance Association's chief operating officer.

Do tax advantage leases force companies to choose between safety and savings?

The Supreme Court is staying out of states' nexus decisions for now. It has declined to hear two nexus cases from the Massachusetts Supreme Court. This refusal leaves companies that do business across state lines vulnerable to states' increasingly aggressive assertion of economic nexus.

Companies that fail to follow all of the proper steps when laying off foreign nationals who hold an H-1B work visa could end up paying wages and benefits to the visa holder until the Department of Labor resolves the issue.