House GOP fight to retain tax loopholes for the rich and corporate

[papau]

Subject: Republicans Try to Dilute Provisions in Tax Bill(keep loopholes for Rich)
GOP tries to dilute provisions "in a new corporate tax bill aimed at cracking down on illegal shelters" "despite widespread agreement that abusive tax shelters are costing the federal government billions of dollars a year."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/05/business/05shelter.html

Republicans Try to Dilute Provisions in Tax Bill
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS Published: October 5, 2004

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - Despite widespread agreement that abusive tax shelters are costing the federal government billions of dollars a year, House Republicans are working to eliminate or dilute provisions in a new corporate tax bill aimed at cracking down on illegal shelters. <snip>

One crucial Senate provision, for example, would greatly increase penalties on people who spin complex transactions that serve no other purpose except to avoid taxes.

Supporters of the Senate bill say it would address a glaring weakness of the system: even when a court finds that a tax deal is abusive, it rarely imposes penalties beyond making a company or a person pay back taxes.

"Multinational corporations use complicated schemes to claim they've had losses when they've really had gains," said Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who has been pushing for such a provision since 1999. "These schemes are so complicated that even the experts have difficulty getting to the bottom of them. One way of challenging these apparent tax losses is to say this complex scheme that may involve many different entities has no economic substance."

The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides the revenue estimates on proposed tax bills, estimated that just one of the disputed provisions would raise about $15 billion over the next 10 years.<snip>

Mr. Thomas also opposes a provision in the Senate bill that would allow the Internal Revenue Service to demand that companies promoting tax shelters turn over a list of their customers.<snip>

That provision would tighten the definition of tax shelters, putting into legislation the well-established judicial doctrine that a financial transaction has to have "economic substance," which means it has to have a purpose beyond reducing taxes.<snip>

[Wapsie B]

1. This is another reason why

the gop will fight to the death; to evade taxation on the aristocracy and making the underclass pay more.

[papau]

2. True :-(

:-(