AICPA Urges Senate to Act on International Income Tax Treaties
The nation’s largest organization of accounting and tax professionals is urging the Senate to approve income tax treaties between the U.S. and various countries.
In a February 3 letter to Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the committee’s ranking member, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) said that it’s necessary to promptly approve the bilateral income tax treaties and protocols currently pending before the committee.
Noting that the full Senate has not approved any income tax treaty or protocol since 2010, the AICPA wrote that it believes “income tax treaties are vital to United States economic growth as well as U.S. trade and tax policy.”
The letter stated, “Tax treaties assist in harmonizing the tax systems of treaty nations and in providing certainty on permanent establishment rules, a mechanism to relieve double taxation, and other key issues faced by businesses of all sizes that operate internationally.”
The AICPA commended the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for its approval last year of new income tax treaties with Chile, Hungary and Poland and of protocols to the income tax treaties with Luxembourg, Switzerland and Spain.
