I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2045
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax treatment
for foreign investment through a United States regulated investment
company comparable to the tax treatment for direct foreign investment
and investment through a foreign mutual fund.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 17, 1995
Mr. CRANE (for himself, Mr. GIBBONS, and Ms. Dunn) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide
tax treatment for foreign investment through a United
States regulated investment company comparable to the
tax treatment for direct foreign investment and invest-
ment through a foreign mutual fund.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Investment Competitiveness Act of 1995’’.
(b) AMENDMENT OF 1986 CODE.—Whenever in this
Act an amendment or repeal is expressed in terms of an
amendment to, or repeal of, a section or other provision,
the reference shall be considered to be made to a section
or other provision of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
SEC. 2. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN DIVIDENDS OF REGU-
LATED INVESTMENT COMPANIES.
(a) TREATMENT OF CERTAIN DIVIDENDS.—
(1) NONRESIDENT ALIEN INDIVIDUALS.—Sec-
tion 871 (relating to tax on nonresident alien indi-
viduals) is amended by redesignating subsection (k)
as subsection (l) and by inserting after subsection (j)
the following new subsection:
‘‘(k) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN DIVIDENDS OF REG-
ULATED INVESTMENT COMPANIES.—
‘‘(1) INTEREST-RELATED DIVIDENDS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in
subparagraph (B), no tax shall be imposed
under paragraph (1)(A) of subsection (a) on
any interest-related dividend received from a
regulated investment company.
‘‘(B) 
EXCEPTIONS.—Subparagraph 
(A)
shall not apply—
‘‘(i) to any interest-related dividend
received from a regulated investment com-
pany by a person to the extent such divi-
dend is attributable to interest (other than
vestment company reduced by the deductions
properly allocable to such income.
‘‘(E) QUALIFIED INTEREST INCOME.—For
purposes of subparagraph (D), the term ‘quali-
fied interest income’ means the sum of the fol-
lowing amounts derived by the regulated invest-
ment company from sources within the United
States:
‘‘(i) Any amount includible in gross
income as original issue discount (within
the meaning of section 1273) on an obliga-
tion payable 183 days or less from the date
of original issue (without regard to the pe-
riod held by the company).
‘‘(ii) Any interest includible in gross
income (including amounts recognized as
ordinary income in respect of original issue
discount or market discount or acquisition
discount under part V of subchapter P and
such other amounts as regulations may
provide) on an obligation which is in reg-
istered form; except that this clause shall
not apply to—
‘‘(I) any interest on an obligation
issued by a corporation or partnership
if the regulated investment company
is a 10-percent shareholder in such
corporation or partnership, and
‘‘(II) any interest which is treat-
ed as not being portfolio interest
under the rules of subsection (h)(4).
‘‘(iii) Any interest referred to in sub-
section (i)(2)(A) (without regard to the
trade or business of the regulated invest-
ment company).
‘‘(F) 10-PERCENT
SHAREHOLDER.—For
purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘10-per-
cent shareholder’ has the meaning given to such
term by subsection (h)(3)(B).
‘‘(2) SHORT-TERM CAPITAL GAIN DIVIDENDS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in
subparagraph (B), no tax shall be imposed
under paragraph (1)(A) of subsection (a) on
any short-term capital gain dividend received
from a regulated investment company.
‘‘(B) EXCEPTION
FOR
ALIENS
TAXABLE
UNDER SUBSECTION (a)(2).—Subparagraph (A)
shall not apply in the case of any nonresident
alien individual subject to tax under subsection
(a)(2).
‘‘(C) SHORT-TERM
CAPITAL
GAIN
DIVI-
DEND.—For purposes of this paragraph, a
short-term capital gain dividend is any dividend
(or part thereof) which is designated by the reg-
ulated investment company as a short-term cap-
ital gain dividend in a written notice mailed to
its shareholders not later than 60 days after the
close of its taxable year. If the aggregate
amount so designated with respect to a taxable
year of the company (including amounts so des-
ignated with respect to dividends paid after the
close of the taxable year described in section
855) is greater than the qualified short-term
gain of the company for such taxable year, the
portion of each distribution which shall be a
short-term capital gain dividend shall be only
that portion of the amounts so designated
which such qualified short-term gain bears to
the aggregate amount so designated.
‘‘(D) QUALIFIED SHORT-TERM GAIN.—For
purposes of subparagraph (C), the term ‘quali-
fied short-term gain’ means the excess of the
net short-term capital gain of the regulated in-
vestment company for the taxable year over the
net long-term capital loss (if any) of such com-
pany for such taxable year. For purposes of this
subparagraph, the excess of the net short-term
capital gain for a taxable year over the net
long-term capital loss for a taxable year (to
which an election under section 4982(e)(4) does
not apply) shall be determined without regard
to any net capital loss or net short-term capital
loss attributable to transactions after October
31 of such year, and any such net capital loss
or net short-term capital loss shall be treated as
arising on the 1st day of the next taxable year.
To the extent provided in regulations, the pre-
ceding sentence shall apply also for purposes of
computing the taxable income of the regulated
investment company.’’.
(2) FOREIGN CORPORATIONS.—Section 881 is
amended by redesignating subsection (e) as sub-
section (f) and by inserting after subsection (d) the
following new subsection:
‘‘(e) TAX NOT TO APPLY TO CERTAIN DIVIDENDS
OF REGULATED INVESTMENT COMPANIES.—
‘‘(1) INTEREST-RELATED DIVIDENDS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in
subparagraph (B), no tax shall be imposed
under paragraph (1) of subsection (a) on any
interest-related dividend (as defined in section
871(k)(1)) received from a regulated investment
company.
‘‘(B) 
EXCEPTION.—Subparagraph 
(A)
shall not apply—
‘‘(i) to any dividend referred to in sec-
tion 871(k)(1)(B), and
‘‘(ii) to any interest-related dividend
received by a controlled foreign corporation
(within the meaning of section 957(a)) to
the extent such dividend is attributable to
interest received by the regulated invest-
ment company from a person who is a re-
lated person (within the meaning of section
864(d)(4)) with respect to such controlled
foreign corporation.
‘‘(C) TREATMENT
OF
DIVIDENDS
RE-
CEIVED
BY
CONTROLLED
FOREIGN
CORPORA-
TIONS.—The rules of subsection (c)(5)(A) shall
apply to any interest-related dividend received
by a controlled foreign corporation (within the
meaning of section 957(a)) to the extent such
dividend is attributable to interest received by
the regulated investment company which is de-
scribed in clause (ii) of section 871(k)(1)(E)
(and not described in clause (i) or (iii) of such
section).
‘‘(2) SHORT-TERM CAPITAL GAIN DIVIDENDS.—
No tax shall be imposed under paragraph (1) of sub-
section (a) on any short-term capital gain dividend
(as defined in section 871(k)(2)) received from a
regulated investment company.’’.
(3) WITHHOLDING TAXES.—
(A) Subsection (c) of section 1441 is
amended by adding at the end thereof the fol-
lowing new paragraph:
‘‘(12) CERTAIN
DIVIDENDS
RECEIVED
FROM
REGULATED INVESTMENT COMPANIES.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—No tax shall be re-
quired to be deducted and withheld under sub-
section (a) from any amount exempt from the
tax imposed by section 871(a)(1)(A) by reason
of section 871(k).
‘‘(B) SPECIAL
RULE.—For purposes of
subparagraph 
(A), 
clause 
(i) 
of 
section
871(k)(1)(B) shall not apply to any dividend
unless the regulated investment company knows
that such dividend is a dividend referred to in
such clause. A similar rule shall apply with re-