Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act

Bill: 115-s-851
Sponsor: Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI]
Introduced: 2017-04-05 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Accounting and auditing
Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Administrative remedies
Bank accounts, deposits, capital
Banking and financial institutions regulation
Business investment and capital
Civil actions and liability
Commodities markets
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Congressional oversight
Corporate finance and management
Credit and credit markets
Department of the Treasury
Evidence and witnesses
Financial services and investments
Foreign and international banking
Foreign and international corporations
Fraud offenses and financial crimes
Government information and archives
Government trust funds
Income tax credits
Income tax deductions
Income tax exclusion
Income tax rates
Interest, dividends, interest rates
Jurisdiction and venue
Sales and excise taxes
Securities
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Tax administration and collection, taxpayers
Taxation of foreign income
Wages and earnings

Summary:
action_date: 2017-04-05
text: 

Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act
 
 
This bill authorizes the Department of the Treasury to impose restrictions on foreign jurisdictions or financial institutions to counter money laundering and efforts to significantly impede U.S. tax enforcement. 
 
The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: 
 
 
expand reporting requirements for certain foreign investments and accounts held by U.S. persons, 
 
establish a rebuttable presumption against the validity of transactions by institutions that do not comply with reporting requirements under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,
 
treat certain foreign corporations managed and controlled primarily in the United States as domestic corporations for tax purposes, 
 
treat swap payments sent offshore as taxable U.S. source income, 
 
impose additional requirements for third party summonses used to obtain information in tax investigations that do not identify the person with respect to whose liability the summons is issued (i.e., John Doe summons), and
 
modify the rules for the taxation of inverted corporations (U.S. corporations that acquire foreign companies to reincorporate in a foreign jurisdiction with income tax rates lower than the United States).
 
 
The bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to: (1) require corporations to disclose certain financial information on a country-by-country basis, and (2) impose penalties for failing to disclose offshore holdings. 
 
The bill makes investment advisers and persons engaged in forming new business entities subject to anti-money laundering requirements. 
 
The bill imposes new restrictions on U.S. corporations and other entities with foreign income with respect to: (1) tax deductions allocable to deferred foreign income, (2) the recalculation of foreign income taxes, (3) intangible property transferred overseas, (4) tax evasion activities by U.S. corporations reincorporating in a foreign country, and (5) the interest expense tax deduction of certain subsidiaries of foreign corporations. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2017-04-05
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2017-04-05
text: Introduced in Senate