Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 3 of 11 (Year 2016)

2,818 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 3 of 11 (Year 2016)”

1. @Charl – thanks for posting that. Here’s more on Section 891:

   Will the US Impose IRC Section 891 – Double US Tax Rates – on EU Companies for State Aid Retribution?

   Saturday, January 23, 2016

   Robert Stack, US Treasury official responsible for International Tax Affairs, stated to the Senate Finance Committee on December 1, 2015 that the US Treasury is concerned that the Senate-Finance-CommitteeEU Commission appears to be disproportionately targeting U.S. companies.

   Moreover, US Treasury is of the opinion that these actions potentially undermine U.S. rights under our tax treaties (given the US imposition of FATCA and other tax treaty overrides, you’ll snicker at that argument).

   Regardless, and most importantly, U.S. Treasury is concerned that the EU Commission is reaching out to tax income that no member state had the right to tax under internationally accepted standards. Rather, from all appearances to the eyes of the US Treasury, the EU Commission is seeking to tax the income of U.S. multinational enterprises that, under current U.S. tax rules, is deferred until such time as the amounts are repatriated to the United States. Robert Stack stated “The mere fact that the U.S. system has left these amounts untaxed until repatriated does not provide under international tax standards a right for another jurisdiction to tax those amounts.”

   Senator Orrin Hatch (Utah), Chairperson of the Senate Finance Commt, stated in December 2015 that the EU Commissions “state aid” remedies and recent activities in the Eurozone look like attempts to impose retroactive taxation on a number of U.S.-based multinational companies.

   And about BEPS he stated: “At the same time, while international efforts to align tax systems are worth exploring, we shouldn’t be negotiating agreements that undermine our own interests for the sake of some supposedly higher or nobler cause. The interests of the United States – our own economy, our own workers, and our own job creators – should be our sole focus.”

   On January 15, 2016, the Finance Committee Members (Republicans and Democrats jointly) sent a letter to US Treasury stating that if the EU Commission imposes retroactive state aid penalties that impact US MNEs, then the US should respond with IRC Section 891 that allows the USA to double the tax rates on governments that “re-capture” that state aid.

   Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Ireland will need to tread cautiously. IRC Section 891 allows up to an 80 percent corporate tax rate to be applied to members of MNE groups of countries. IRC Section 891 states that under the laws of any foreign country, U.S. corporations are subjected to discriminatory or extraterritorial taxes, US tax may be doubled, up to a maximum 80 percent, for corporations of such foreign country. When the lobby of the top US MNEs gets the Dems and the GOP on-board for a very rare common front, EU watch out.

   http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/intfinlaw/2016/01/will-the-us-impose-irc-section-891-double-us-tax-rates-on-eu-companies-for-state-aid-retribution.html

   Outrageous indeed. Let’s hope it’s just a lot of aggressive populist ranting.

2. I see that the hypocrisies of Section 891 were documented by Eric here on the Brock website, way back in 2013.

   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/02/02/internal-revenue-code-severely-punishes-countries-which-impose-extraterritorial-taxation/

3. The Liberal privacy campaign that died with the election: Tim Harper
   In opposition, Liberals condemned a Conservative move to share Canadians’ banking data with Americans. Now they back it.
   http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/03/30/the-liberal-privacy-campaign-that-died-with-the-election-tim-harper.html

4. A really good thing about The Star article is that is calls people Canadians and not U.S. Persons residing in Canada.

5. @Tom Alciere

   I know I could be accused of libel for writing such a thing, but I think I heard that Tim Harper is a US citizen, or at least was.

6. Thanks, Tom Alciere.

   This article has its own post where comments should now go to keep them together:http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/03/30/march-30-2015-now-the-toronto-star-publishes-today-a-mr-justin-trudeau-flip-flop-article/

7. @Charl

   Form that Forbe’s article:

   “Nonetheless, Lew’s Treasury Department is reported to be “closely” reviewing a never-used 82-year-old law as a means of retaliation.”

   What good are laws if you don’t use them?

8. March 29, 2016, Forbes: “Taxpayer Advocate Holding Public Forums Seeking Taxpayer Comment On IRS Future Plans”

   Kelly Phillips Erb
   FORBES STAFF

   National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson and Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, have announced the next in a series of public forums designed to allow taxpayers to voice what they want and need from the IRS in order to comply with their tax obligations. The next public forum will be held on Monday, April 4, at 5:30 pm at the Henderson County King Street Meeting Room in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Members of the public and the media are invited to attend.

9. @Bubblebustin
   The E.U. has been going against European companies such as Fiat as well on this issue, so the U.S. is just trying it on. I am not sympathetic because last year Google, which has a physical presence in the U.K., paid less in corporation tax (under USD$5,500) than I paid in U.K. income tax. Between the U.S. threats and Germany arming itself with tax lawyers to enforce the FATCA promises, things are going to get ugly.

10. Retweets/ Likes Requested Here:

    https://twitter.com/JasonPedley/status/715191478176387073

    https://twitter.com/LynneBlaze/status/715244497291051008

11. @Publius,

    Only people pay taxes. Tax a company and you really tax the shareholders, customers and employees. The amount each is hit is inversely proportional to the ease with which they can avoid the tax.
    Tax people. Don’t hide a tax to try and make it look like you aren’t taxing people because you always are.

12. The Liberal privacy campaign that died with the election: Tim Harper

    By: Tim Harper National Affairs Columnist, Published on Wed Mar 30 2016
    http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/03/30/the-liberal-privacy-campaign-that-died-with-the-election-tim-harper.html

    Correction – March 30, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the amount raised by Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty. As well, the article misspelled Lynne Swanson’s given name.

13. Owe Back Taxes? Lose Your Passport
    March 30, 2016
    Americans filing from overseas face Byzantine rules and draconian penalties, courtesy of the IRS.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-30/owe-back-taxes-lose-your-passport

14. With regard to the threats that the US might try to use Section 891 against the EU – this seems more like hot air than reality.

    The EU has published proposals to try to require its member nations to be more transparent about their “sweetheart” tax arrangements with MNEs, whereby a company like Fiat or Google or Costa can transfer its profits from an EU country to a low-tax jurisdiction, thus escaping or reducing tax in the EU country. The EU is saying that this amounts to “state aid” for the MNE in question – which would breach EU level-playing-field regulations.

    The implication is that those EU countries with sweetheart deals might be required to reduce or eliminate this hidden subsidy, and restore normal transfer pricing practice – which would have the effect of requiring the MNEs to pay tax like companies who don’t have sweetheart deals.

    The US doesn’t like this proposal, when the MNE with the sweetheart deal is American, because it wants all the profits of American MNEs to be “repatriated” to American for taxation. In other words, it’s exactly the same broken bit of the US tax code (corporation tax law) as leads to inversions.

    If any US MNE ends up paying higher taxes to a EU country as a result of the EU reporting proposals, it will not be a case of the EU imposing “extraterritorial” taxation, or any taxation. It will just be a case of the EU requiring its member states to abide by existing regulations and tax companies equally instead of agreeing secret sweetheart deals.

    Transfer pricing is a hot button issue in the OECD BEPS plan – which is likely to have more impact on actual events than threats about Section 891.

    My opinion only. IANAL.

15. List of countries that get info from the US?

    https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-16-18.pdf

16. @ Neill: RE List of countries that get info from the US?

    If you look closely to the wording, these are not countries that GET info from the US but have been identified as countries with which the automatic exchange of
    the information collected under §§1.6049-4(b)(5) and 1.6049-8 HAS BEEN DETERMINED BY THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT AND THE IRS TO BE APPROPRIATE (emphasis mine).

    This is typical IRS feigned suggestion that this reciprocity COULD be considered and MIGHT happen. Don’t believe it – given the financing and status of the IRS and the upcoming election, THIS AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN.

17. United States, the last [but maybe not safest] chance to shelter money from tax havens:

    https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.letemps.ch%2Feconomie%2F2016%2F03%2F31%2Fetats-unis-refuge-derniere-chance-argent-paradis-fiscaux&edit-text

18. @LM
    The list though is close in number to the 34 the WSJ reported the IRS sent information to.

19. Neill and LM,
    I think you’re right, that’s the list of countries the IRS is willing to send tax data to. The IRS has assessed the data security in these countries as adequate. Under CRS, every country should be compiling a similar list. Given the poor record of data security at the IRS, no country should put the US on the list of countries to be trusted with electronic tax data.

20. @ Neill – “The list though is close in number to the 34 the WSJ reported the IRS sent information to.”
    Sorry, I have no understanding of what you mean by this – – please elaborate.

21. @ Karen & Neill – – what does this have to do with inheritance?

22. @LM,
    WSJ has previously reported that the IRS has sent data to other countries:

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-begins-sending-individual-account-information-to-foreign-countries-1443810584
    >Karen & Neill – – what does this have to do with inheritance?

    Nothing. I said the IRS released a list of countries they would send data to. You said they wouldn’t. I said they already have according to the WSJ.
    Stories are confused though. We had a report of complains I think from India that the IRS hadn’t sent them data.

23. Yesterday I thought I’d win the prize for the scoop of the day with that Toronto Star article, but then I learned I was disqualified because comments were not available on that article.

    Ryan Pinder among financial experts to address OAS Permanent Council
    By Oswald Brown
    Mar 31, 2016 – 5:18:38 PM

    http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/international/Ryan_Pinder_among_financial_experts_to_address_OAS_Permanent_Council47534.shtml

    The importance of the special meeting was highlighted by Sir Ronald Sanders, Chair of the Permanent Council and Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda, who noted that Caribbean and Central American states “have recently been subject to worrying developments directly affecting their financial services sector that pose a threat to their economic growth and political stability.”

    That’s what happens when you take orders from a foreign country.

24. Comments available

    National Column: Liberal push for privacy died after election
    http://morinvillenews.com/2016/03/31/national-column-liberal-push-for-privacy-died-after-election/

25. Actually, the Morinville article allows two sets of comments.

Comments are closed.