美国参议院共和党人担心第二支柱对美国企业的影响

编译：思迈特财税国际税收服务团队

美国参议院财政委员会共和党成员（Senators）最近给美国财政部长珍妮特耶伦（Janet Yellen）的一封后续信函再次表达了对OECD发布的支柱2示范规则担忧及其对美国公司可能产生的不利影响。其中由财政部负责税收政策的助理部长Lily Batchelder提出的一点担心为：她认为支柱二对企业所得最低税率的规定使得美国将不再是对外国收入征收最低税的国家。

并且参议员们表示，美国财政部（Treasury）并没有“完全透明”，比如忽略了根据第二支柱示范规则，外国可以对美国企业在美国的利润征收额外的“补足税”这一事实。换句话说，外国可以有效地从国会提供的税收抵免和减免中获益，例如针对国内创新、投资和创造就业机会的研发抵免。与此同时，参议员们根据牛津大学的政策简报得出随着支柱二的规定，各国降低税率的动力越来越强的结论。

了解详情，请查阅以下NEWS

NEWS：US Senate Republicans Concerned Over Pillar 2 Impact on US Businesses

Source：Florida Atlantic University ·        Author：Joel M DiCicco

A recent follow-up letter (dated 16 February 2022) addressed to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen from the Republican Party members of the US Senate Committee on Finance (Senators) expressed concern again over the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Pillar 2 Model Rules and its possible detrimental effects on US companies. Since the mid-December 2021 initial letter, more information came to light suggesting more harm than envisioned for US companies.

One point concerned the statements made by Lily Batchelder, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy, suggesting that Pillar 2 would set "a floor so that multinational corporations, whether headquartered in the United States or abroad, will pay taxes on their foreign earnings of at least 15 percent" even though acknowledging that the United States is the only country with a minimum tax on foreign earnings.

The Senators stated that the US Treasury Department (Treasury) has not been "fully transparent" such as omitting the fact that under Pillar 2 Model Rules, foreign countries could impose an additional "top-up tax" on US companies' US profits. In other words, foreign countries could effectively capture the benefit of congressionally provided tax credits and deductions such as the Research and Development credits targeted at domestic innovation, investment and job creation.

Furthermore, despite repeated requests, the Treasury has declined to provide any data or analysis of the effect of the OECD agreement on US revenue, not even to the non-partisan experts at the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), so that independent estimates and analysis can be developed and provided to members of Congress on a bi-partisan basis.

The Senators also cited an Oxford University Policy Brief, which concluded that not only will countries have an incentive to lower their tax rates, potentially to zero, but the incentive may become stronger with a Pillar 2 minimum tax in place to improve their competitive position over competitors.

In conclusion, the Senators requested an in-person briefing to address these issues as well as written responses to their unanswered questions.

Note 1: The OECD establishes evidence-based international standards and provides solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges.

Note 2: The Pillar 2 "Top-Up" Tax is a mechanism to levy additional taxes on multinational firms up to the 15% minimum tax level in the countries where they operate. These additional charges will be derived from two variants: the Income Inclusion Rules; and the Undertaxed Payments Rules.

Note 3: The JCT, established under the Revenue Act of 1926, is a non-partisan committee of the US Congress and is involved with every aspect of the tax legislative process, including: assisting Congressional tax-writing committees and Members of Congress with development and analysis of legislative proposals;preparing official revenue estimates of all tax legislation considered by Congress;drafting legislative histories for tax-related bills; and investigating various aspects of the US federal tax system.