Obama Administration Increases Efforts to Pursue International Tax Enforcement
July 2, 2009 – 9:09 amThe IRS has ramped up its efforts in international tax enforcement under the Obama Administration. The President and the Commissioner of the IRS, Doug Schullman, have declared that enforcement of international taxation matters will be a priority in the next several years, including using tax informants and tax whistleblowers. As stated in a previous blog, IRS officials announced a expansion by some 800 international revenue agents. For years, the IRS strongly indicated the need for defending the U.S. tax base from corporate inversions and transfer pricing issues. This need has been accentuated by the current predominance of foreign-initiated adjustments. The first step is the significant expansion of the IRS examination capacity in international tax matters, which in due course will begin to address the imbalance in the source of adjustments. A second step will be the enforcement of treaty provisions with foreign countries and the redrafting of weak treaty provisions to allow ...