Great article on the extremely generous international tax regulations the Administration has been issuing. A few quick thoughts. 1/
I have heard anecdotally that Mnuchin has been far more involved in the tax reg process than prior Secretaries. When the Secretary and lobbyists are pushing for unreasonably generous interpretations of the law, it’s hard for nonpartisan career staff to stand their ground. 2/
Several practitioners have told me major components of the regs have little or no statutory basis. While it is easy for big MNEs to challenge tax regs as too tough in the courts, it is very difficult for anyone to challenge them as being too lenient due to standing issues. 3/
As a result, there is a one-way ratchet in the regulatory process in favor of big MNEs and wealthy taxpayers. This needs to change. For a great discussion of standing issues, see this article by @davidckamin and @DanielJHemel 4/ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
@davidckamin @DanielJHemel Any time Treasury cuts tax burdens on MNEs through regulations, the wealthy overwhelmingly benefit. Treasury estimates the top 1% get 43% of the benefit of corporate tax cuts—and even more when the tax cuts are for MNEs. 5/ web.archive.org/web/2015090700…
@davidckamin @DanielJHemel This is from a Treasury Office of Tax Analysis paper that the Trump Administration removed from the Treasury website—the first time I’m aware of this happening. 6/6 wsj.com/articles/treas…
