H.R.2136 - Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act

submitted by Gabrielle Jones Price

What is it?

An act introduced (on 05/03/07) to restrict the use of offshore tax havens and abusive tax shelters to inappropriately avoid Federal taxation, and for other purposes.

Sponsored by Representative Lloyd Doggett D-TX

Co-sponsored by 47 other Reps...(please note: not ONE was Republican)

Actions:

May 3rd/07 Referred to House Judiciary

May 3rd/07 Referred to House Financial Services

May 3rd/07 Referred to House Ways and Means

May 3rd/07 Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

May 3rd/07 Introduced in House

Jun 4th/07 Last action: Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.

Dead in the water...

Maybe because it requires the Secretary of the Treasury to publish a final rule requiring unregistered investment companies, including hedge funds or private equity funds, to establish anti-money laundering programs and to submit suspicious activity reports.

Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson, Jr. served as the 74th United States Treasury Secretary (under Bush from 06 to 09). He previously served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs.

Timothy Franz Geithner is the 75th and current United States Secretary of the Treasury (under Obama). He was previously the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He played a supporting role to Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, in the decision to bail out AIG just two days after deciding not to rescue Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy. According to some observers, Geithner severely damaged the U.S. economy.

Geithner believes along with Henry Paulson, that the United States Department of the Treasury needs new authority to experiment with responses to the financial crisis of 2007–2010 (...during both their tenures...). Paulson has described Geithner as "[a] very unusually talented young man...[who] understands government and understands markets."

Yeah, so will all of us when we do some research to see who has more than a few tax havens. You can view the entire act here: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h2136/text


The only information in I could locate on this subject since it died in referral was from local papers during election season on Congressional candidates that had offshore holdings like, Vernon G. "Vern" Buchanan, Republican Congressman representing Florida's 13th congressional district.

So why on earth was it referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property? Intellectual property deals with patents and several bills introduced in the 110th Congress address the recently recognized phenomenon of patented tax strategies. These legislative initiatives respond in different ways to the grant of exclusive intellectual property rights by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on methods that individuals and enterprises might use in order to minimize their tax obligations.

Wikileaks article release: Patents on Tax Strategies: Issues in Intellectual Property and Innovation
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34221_20080110.pdf

Reminder - this election season when Republicans want to extend Bush Tax Cuts - you may want to consider they've been getting more than enough through the loopholes their corporate sugar daddies have created, by manipulating the law during the time Bush was in office. Don't forget how we got here.

Ready for real change?

(Additional sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/)

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