Overview
Ways and Means Committee Holds Hearing on International Tax Issues: Today, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on the global tax environment in 2016 and implications for international tax reform. In his opening statement, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) noted that the “hearing today is another step in our plan to bring America’s tax code into the 21st Century and protect American workers and their jobs.” In particular, Chairman Brady asked witnesses and committee members to discuss the impact of the current US tax system, “including our exorbitant corporate tax rate;” the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project; and the “European Union’s state aid investigations that threaten to subject American businesses to retroactive taxes going back ten years.”
The witnesses were:
Michelle Hanlon
Professor of Accounting, MIT Sloan School of Management
Testimony
Raymond Wiacek
Partner, Jones Day
Testimony
Itai Grinberg
Associate Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Testimony
Edward D. Kleinbard
Professor of Law, University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Testimony
The Joint Committee on Taxation report, “Present Law and Recent Global Developments Related to Cross-Border Taxation,” which was prepared for today’s hearing, can be accessed here.
Treasury, IRS Issue Final Regulations Authorizing Certain Disclosures to the Census Bureau: Today, Treasury and the IRS issued final regulations (TD 9754) that authorize the disclosure of certain items of return information to the Bureau of the Census (Bureau) in conformance with section 6103(j)(1). According to the preamble, such return information will be used by the Bureau “for purposes of structuring a census that costs less per housing unit and still maintains high quality results.” The regulations finalize temporary regulations that were made pursuant to a request from the Secretary of Commerce and are effective February 26.