CUT Loopholes Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Cut Unjustified Tax Loopholes Act or the CUT Loopholes Act - Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to impose restrictions on foreign jurisdictions or financial institutions operating in the United States that are of primary money laundering concern or that impede U.S. tax enforcement.
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to:
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;
require tax withholding agents and financial institutions to report certain information about beneficial owners of foreign-owned financial accounts;
treat swap payments sent offshore as taxable U.S. source income;
allow the disclosure of tax information to specified federal agencies for use in investigating tax shelter schemes;
enhance penalties for promoting abusive tax shelters and for aiding and abetting the understatement of tax liability;
prohibit tax advisor contingent fee agreements for obtaining a tax savings or benefit;
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)
limit the employer tax deduction for stock options granted to employees to the value of such options as recorded on the employer's books at the time such options were granted; and
apply the $1 million limitation on the employer tax deduction for employee remuneration to stock option compensation.
Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to: (1) require corporations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to report annually, on a country-by country basis, on employees, sales, financing, tax obligations, and tax payments; and (2) authorize a fine of up to $1 million for failure to disclose any holdings or transactions involving equity or debt instruments known to involve a foreign entity that would otherwise be subject to disclosure requirements.
The summary continues for 14 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on February 11, 2013. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on February 11, 2013: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
CARL LEVIN (D-MI) introduced it on February 11, 2013, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Democrat.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on February 11, 2013, 4959 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4959 days ago, on February 11, 2013.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers