• 22
  • June
    2011

Senator Carl Levin has again introduced criminal tax evasion legislation - the 2011 version of 2004's Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (STHAA) and the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (ITLEAA). These bills are aimed at combating tax fraud by increasing criminal and civil penalties on both businesses that place untaxed funds into offshore accounts and banks which accept the money.

What Would This Legislation Do?

The STHAA would serve to beef up federal laws in order to better ensure that the government has the authority to take punitive action against banks, other financial institutions and even countries that impede the enforcement of American tax laws. Possible penalties could include business embargoes against whole jurisdictions known to purposefully shelter funds away from the prying eyes of U.S. tax authorities.

The ITLEAA takes a very different approach. Instead of penalizing the financial institutions and countries that house the funds, it aims to bring transparency to the people behind-the-scenes at companies that might be hiding money. It would set forth regulations requiring the state of a business' incorporation to collect key identifying information about a company's owners and provide it to law enforcement or tax authorities when subpoenaed.

Senator Levin, the chair of the Senate subcommittee on investments, has stated in the past that abuse of foreign tax havens by American citizens and businesses costs the United States roughly $100 billion in tax revenue annually. In light of the country's ballooning national debt crisis and overall precarious economic situation, he feels that bipartisan support may finally exist for the STHAA and the ITLEAA.