I recently co-authored with Dan Mitchell an article in the Swiss magazine Schweizer Monat explaining the many problems with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and the schizophrenic nature of US tax policy in general. The key points: The rationale behind FATCA is simple in its destructiveness. Even though the United States has a […]

In a pair of letters sent to Treasury and Congressional leadership, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P) has once again asked Congress to repeal the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and for Treasury to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. While CF&P welcomes the recent IRS announcement that FATCA will not be put into force at the beginning of 2013 as originally scheduled, the announcement shows recognition on the part of the IRS of the heavy regulatory burden that would be placed on foreign financial institutions.

The Internal Revenue Service’s recent decision to delay the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) stems from significant industry backlash over the costs and burdens of the regulation. In light of these developments, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and the Coalition for Tax Competition are renewing the call for Treasury to conduct a real cost-benefit analysis to fully understand the implications of FACTA and its impact on the US economy.

In what is becoming an annual summer tradition, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) introduced today legislation persecuting low-tax jurisdictions. His so-called Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act would not only fail in its stated purpose of raising new revenues, according to Andrew Quinlan of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, but also would reduce investment in the U.S., increase burdens on American companies, and cost jobs.

One of the tax increases buried in Obamacare was an onerous and intrusive “1099″ scheme that would have required businesses to collect tax identification numbers for just about any vendor and then send paperwork to the IRS whenever they did more than $600 of business. Send one of your sales people to New York for […]

Richard Rahn writes in the Washington Times today on a pair of regulations which he describes as “national economic suicide.” At issue is the IRS’s proposed regulation that would require U.S. banks to report information on foreign account holders, even though they are not taxed in the U.S., as well as the Foreign Account Tax […]

For the more than a decade the Internal Revenue Service has been chasing after potential U.S. tax evaders by forcing foreign jurisdictions and banks to become deputy tax collectors. From the Know-Your-Customer regulations to the Qualified Intermediary regime, non-U.S. banks have mostly complied with the IRS’s bullying. But as the excerpted article below discusses, U.S. […]