AICPA Prods Senate to Pass Tax Treaties

The American Institute of CPAs is asking the Senate to quickly approve several income tax treaties with other countries that have been awaiting ratification for years.

In a letter last week to  Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the committee’s ranking Democrat, the AICPA pointed out that the full Senate has not approved any income tax treaty or protocol since 2010.

AICPA Tax Executive Committee chair Troy Lewis wrote that the Institute believes “income tax treaties are vital to United States economic growth as well as U.S. trade and tax policy.”

“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,” said the letter.

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. However, the full Senate has not yet ratified those treaties.