The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation, joined by 23 of the country’s most influential free market and taxpayer rights organizations, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging withdrawal of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulation that would discourage capital from the U.S. economy and weaken the American financial system.

We are troubled by the Treasury Department’s failure to withdraw a rule that faces near universal opposition, provides no benefit to the U.S., and threatens to drive billions in much needed foreign investment out of the economy. We are therefore writing again to express our opposition to the nonresident alien deposit interest reporting regulation (REG-146097-09), and ask that it be withdrawn.

I’ve written several times about a proposed IRS regulation that would force American banks to put foreign law above U.S. law. I’ve repeatedly warned that the scheme, which would force financial institutions to report the deposit interest they pay to foreigners, is bad economic policy, bad regulatory policy, and bad banking policy. My arguments have […]

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P) is participating Wednesday in a conference in the British Virgin Islands, where Dan Mitchell and Brian Garst will outline growing threats to international tax competition and business.

Last year, I came up with a saying that “Bad Government Policy Begets More Bad Government Policy” and labeled it “Mitchell’s Law” during a bout of narcissism. There are lots of examples of this phenomenon, such as the misguided War on Drugs being a precursor to intrusive, costly, and ineffective money laundering policies. Or how […]

Peter Dunn, warning of the many issues with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, has written a great article at American Thinker called “FATCA: A Ticking Time Bomb for the Economy.” Lawmakers clearly need to reconsider the law and its accompanying regulations and withdraw them before trillions are driven from the economy: Now the HIRE […]

Proposed IRS non-resident alien interest deposit reporting requirement received an unfriendly reception at an October 27 hearing held by a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.

As CF&P has consistently warned, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act passed last year is driving foreign investment out of the US, which means less capital investment for the economy and thus fewer jobs for Americans. A group of Taiwanese banks fed up with the burdensome requirements of the law are reducing their US holdings, […]

I’ve previously blogged about the declining status of the United States, as measured by objective sources such as the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. My attitude about these developments is to sarcastically say, “Thanks for nothing, Bush and Obama.” But the real insult to injury is […]

Why impose a regulatory burden on a weakened banking sector when it has nothing to do with enforcing American tax law?