Tax Shelter Transparency and Enforcement Act

Bill: 108-s-1937
Sponsor: Sen. Baucus, Max [D-MT]
Introduced: 2003-11-24 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Accounting
Administrative procedure
Administrative remedies
Affiliated corporations
Antitrust law
Business records
Chief executive officers
Civil actions and liability
Commerce
Confidential communications
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Corporate debt
Corporate finance
Corporate reorganizations
Corporation directors
Corporation taxes
Crime and Law Enforcement
Department of the Treasury
Depreciation and amortization
Executives
Finance and Financial Sector
Fines (Penalties)
Foreign Trade and International Finance
Foreign banks and banking
Foreign corporations
Fraud
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Home equity conversion
Housing and Community Development
Income tax
Information disclosure (Securities law)
Injunctions
Interest
Investments
Investors
Law
Lawyers
Leases
Legal ethics
Liability insurance
Limitation of actions
Loan defaults
Losses
Partnerships
Profit
Punitive damages
Real estate investment
Secondary mortgage market
Stockholders
Stocks
Subsidiary corporations
Tax administration
Tax consultants
Tax credits
Tax deductions
Tax evasion
Tax liens
Tax penalties
Tax preparers
Tax returns
Tax shelters
Taxation of foreign income
Taxpayers
Trusts and trustees
Valuation

Summary:
action_date: 2003-11-24
text: 
Tax Shelter Transparency and Enforcement Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to revise provisions concerning tax shelters, including to: (1) set forth rules for use in applying the economic substance doctrine, including defining economic substance; (2) impose penalties on individuals who fail to include on any return or statement required information regarding reportable transactions; (3) impose a penalty of 40 percent (20 percent, if there has been adequate disclosure) of the understatement for a noneconomic substance transaction understatement; (4) direct a material advisor, with respect to any reportable transaction, to make a return describing the transaction, its potential tax benefits, and other information prescribed by the Secretary; (5) penalize an individual for making a statement with respect to certain tax statements (deductions, credits, and etc.) that an individual knows is false or fraudulent as to any material matter at the rate of 50 percent of the gross income derived from such activity; (6) authorize appropriations for the purpose of carrying out tax law enforcement to combat tax avoidance transactions and other tax shelters, including the use of offshore financial accounts to conceal taxable income; (7) permit the Secretary of the Treasury, in prescribing regulations governing the tax liability of an affiliated group of corporations making a consolidated return, to prescribe rules applicable to corporations filing consolidated returns that are different from other provisions concerning consolidated returns that would apply if such corporations filed separate returns; (8) require corporate tax returns to include a declaration by the chief executive officer (CEO), under penalty of perjury, that the return complies with the Internal Revenue Code and that the CEO was provided reasonable assurance of the accuracy of all material aspects of the return; (9) limit the basis of certain corporate property acquired by the issuance of stock or as paid-in surplus and for which there is the importation of net built-in loss to the property's fair market value immediately after the transfer of such property; and (10) repeal part V (Financial Asset Securitization Investment Trusts) of subchapter M (Regulated Investment Companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts).


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2003-11-24
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S15819-15827)
action_date: 2003-11-24
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S15816-15819)
action_date: 2003-11-24
text: Introduced in Senate