Center for Freedom and Prosperity
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
CF&P Comments on Boustany’s BEPS Act
(Washington, D.C., Tuesday, December 29, 2015) The Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P) welcomes the introduction of legislation by Rep. Boustany to protect American businesses from an invasive reporting scheme dreamed up by the OECD. Introduced last week, his Bad Exchange Prevention (BEPS) Act, H.R. 4297, would prevent Treasury from participating until 2017 in the country-by-country reporting as part of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan, while adding protections against abuse of sensitive data. In response, CF&P President Andrew F. Quinlan offered the following statement:
“Rep. Boustany’s steady leadership is greatly appreciated. His BEPS Act will prevent the Treasury Department from unilaterally implementing rules that would profoundly and negatively impact the American business community. It is now up to the rest of Congress to follow suit and join his efforts to fulfill the Constitutional duties of Congress to engage in critical oversight and be the primary driver of U.S. tax policy.
This legislation marks an important first step in the fight to protect American businesses from being raided by greedy global tax collectors. The Treasury Department has sided with unelected international bureaucrats instead of standing up for the interests of U.S. business and taxpayers alike. That’s why it is essential that Congress step in and take charge, and why CF&P will continue to fight against OECD efforts to radically rewrite the rules of global commerce.”
Recent hearings in the House and Senate exposed the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan as a serious competitive threat to the United States. CF&P submitted testimony documenting how, in addition to exposing propriety data from U.S. corporations to foreign jurisdictions, BEPS will inevitably lead to higher taxes on American businesses and a worsening global economy.
CF&P has been at the forefront of opposition to the BEPS project since its inception in 2013. Recently, CF&P spearheaded a coalition letter featuring 22 influential free market and taxpayer advocacy organizations calling on Congress to take a greater role in the BEPS process and defend the free market principles and U.S. economic interests that the administration would not. Earlier in the year, CF&P published a research paper that placed the OECD’s efforts on BEPS in the context of its broader policy goals, explaining why they are at odds with the interests of the United States.
Link to coalition letter:
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/files/OECD/ctc-BEPS-2015-07-14.pdf
Link to “Making Sense of BEPS: The Latest OECD Assault on Tax Competition:”
http://freedomandprosperity.org/2015/publications/making-sense-of-beps/
For additional comments:
Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, andy@freedomandprosperity.org
Brian Garst, Dir. of Policy and Communications, can be reached at bgarst@freedomandprosperity.org
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