Don't Serve Foreign Tax Collectors
According to this press release from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P), the IRS was seeking to implement a regulation that would require “banks to report nonresident alien deposit interest information, despite the fact that such interest is not taxed under U.S. law.” The background according to CF&P:
“The regulation (REG-146097-09) puts the interests of foreign tax collectors ahead of both U.S. law and economic interests. A 2004 study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University looked at a similar regulation that only applied to fifteen countries and found that it would result in the loss of $88 billion in foreign investment. The current version of the proposed regulation would be much more destructive, as it would apply to deposits from citizens of any nation. Despite this evidence, the IRS has never performed a cost-benefit analysis of the regulation as required by Executive Order 12866 for any regulation that would have an annual effect of more than $100 million. The bureaucrats have blithely dismissed their legal obligation by claiming that their proposal is “not a significant regulatory action.””
Consequently, CF&P is praising three U.S. senators (Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) who introduced legislation (S. 1506) to prevent implementation of the IRS regulation. CF&P explains why:
“The Center for Freedom and Prosperity has led the opposition against all forms of the interest reporting regulation since it was first proposed in the waning days of the Clinton administration. Organized by CF&P, members of the Coalition for Tax Competition have testified at three separate IRS hearings on the issue held over the years, including the most recent on May 18, 2011, and written numerous letters to Administration, Congressional and Treasury officials. Opposing the regulation is a top priority of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.
Taxpayers are encouraged to thank the Center for Freedom & Prosperity for their aggressive pursuit of American taxpayers freedom and prosperity.