Levin says it’s going to happen
Senator Carl Levin has said the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act is going to happen:
American lawmakers will waste no time in helping President-elect Barack Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to “shut down the tax havens”, a leading US Senator has indicated.
Sen. Carl Levin said the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act - a bill which names Bermuda as one of 34 “offshore secrecy jurisdictions” - will become law next year with the support of the new president
“The President-elect has co-sponsored our bill, which goes after the misuse of these tax havens, the avoidance of taxes by American taxpayers, individuals and corporations using the Cayman Islands and all these other places to avoid paying their bills to Uncle Sam,” Sen. Levin said in an interview broadcast on Bloomberg Television last Friday.
Some of us hope so, very much.
And some of don’t believe those jurisdictions who will be affected who claim they’re fully compliant and cooperative already. That is not an opinion the IRS share - because they effectively selected the 34 jurisdictions the Act will apply to.
Don’t the Republicans have a large enough minority in the US Senate to do a filibuster? The Democrats would need sixty plus to override one and they don’t have it. Also there may be some conservative “blue dog” senators who could be got at by the K Street lobbyists.
I know that Norm Coleman, who is a Republican senator, co-sponsored the last tax haven abuse act so we can only hope that at least some Republican sanators can be persuaded to make it a bipartisan measure. There are two kinds of Republican, the economic libertarians (market fundamentalists) and the social conservatives. it is the latter group who must be persuaded.
Are the UK and state of Delaware part of the 34 tax havens to be shut down?
It seems pretty clear that Levin thinks that there will be enough Republicans cross the floor to get this legislation through
And yes, the same team do have their eye on Delaware and the need for transparency in that and other US states
here is the list:
22 ‘‘(i) Anguilla.
23 ‘‘(ii) Antigua and Barbuda.
24 ‘‘(iii) Aruba.
25 ‘‘(iv) Bahamas.
1 ‘‘(v) Barbados.
2 ‘‘(vi) Belize.
3 ‘‘(vii) Bermuda.
4 ‘‘(viii) British Virgin Islands.
5 ‘‘(ix) Cayman Islands.
6 ‘‘(x) Cook Islands.
7 ‘‘(xi) Costa Rica.
8 ‘‘(xii) Cyprus.
9 ‘‘(xiii) Dominica.
10 ‘‘(xiv) Gibraltar.
11 ‘‘(xv) Grenada.
12 ‘‘(xvi) Guernsey/Sark/Alderney.
13 ‘‘(xvii) Hong Kong.
14 ‘‘(xviii) Isle of Man.
15 ‘‘(xix) Jersey.
16 ‘‘(xx) Latvia.
17 ‘‘(xxi) Liechtenstein.
18 ‘‘(xxii) Luxembourg.
19 ‘‘(xxiii) Malta.
20 ‘‘(xxiv) Nauru.
21 ‘‘(xxv) Netherlands Antilles.
22 ‘‘(xxvi) Panama.
23 ‘‘(xxvii) Samoa.
24 ‘‘(xxviii) St. Kitts and Nevis.
25 ‘‘(xxix) St. Lucia.
1 ‘‘(xxx) St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
3 ‘‘(xxxi) Singapore.
4 ‘‘(xxxii) Switzerland.
5 ‘‘(xxxiii) Turks and Caicos.
6 ‘‘(xxxiv) Vanuatu.
source:
http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2007/PSI.OffshoreTaxBill.021707.pdf
BTW I can’t find the source for Levin’s quote; it says ‘last Friday’ (the 5th). There’s an interview of Levin but he doesn’t talk about the bill:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aEGHb1TDsOk8
The IRS hasn’t done any investigatiion but is following an old OECD list which does not take into account changes in the listed countries e.g , entering Tax Information Exchange Agreements with the U.S. and other countries . It seems bureaucacy is stuck to the dtriment of countries that have changed their ways.
Apt
Not true
The reality is that they have not changed their ways: indeed, the opportunities for abuse they have created have multiplied.
Richard
the link to the Royal Gazette article has changed:
http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?sectionId=60&articleId=7d8c41730030000