{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/young-joins-finance-republicans-to-demand-treasury-analysis-of-oecd-agreement/", "Young Joins Finance Republicans to Demand Treasury Analysis of OECD Agreement", "2021-12-22", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Todd Young", "Y000064", "www.young.senate.gov", "toddyoung", "https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) joined Senate Finance Committee Republicans in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to renew requests for information regarding international tax negotiations. To date, Treasury has been unwilling or unable to fully engage with Congress to provide details on the negotiations, which will have a significant impact on American workers, businesses and revenue.\n\nThe senators raise concerns with how the negotiations may negatively impact U.S. competitiveness; the commitment from the United States to increase its global minimum tax before any other country; and suggestions that Treasury could implement the agreement without the advice and consent of the Senate, bypassing the treaty process.\n\nFrom the letter:\n\n\u201cThe Administration\u2019s rush to reach a political agreement, tied to its domestic spending plans and pursuit of revenue, has come at the expense of thorough analysis and meaningful engagement with Congress and the business community, and may ultimately put U.S. businesses at risk\u2026 Given this agreement\u2019s potential to jeopardize U.S. competitiveness, we continue to have concerns with the lack of detail underlying the approach being proposed under Pillar One and its lack of foundation in any discernible tax principles.\n\n\u2026\n\nFurther troubling is Treasury\u2019s continued insistence that the United States once again move first by significantly increasing the U.S. global minimum tax\u2026 As Pillar Two does not require other countries to adopt a global minimum tax, we are not confident that our biggest foreign competitors, like China, will enact and implement a global minimum tax on the same terms or on the timeline agreed to at the OECD.\n\n\u2026\n\nFinally, suggestions that the United States could fully implement Pillar One without the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate through the treaty process are highly problematic\u2026 [A]ny suggestion that Pillar One can be implemented absent treaty ratification is a dramatic shift from past precedent and calls into question the binding nature of any such agreement, thereby threatening the very tax certainty that many of our companies, and this Administration, claim to seek under Pillar One.\u201d\n\nThe senators end the letter with a detailed list of questions regarding the proposals, reiterating that any opportunity for a bipartisan outcome will require greater transparency and engagement from Treasury.\n\nIn addition to Senator Young, the following Republican members of the Finance Committee signed the letter:\n\nMike Crapo (R-Idaho, Ranking Member)\n\nChuck Grassley (R-Iowa)\n\nJohn Cornyn (R-Texas)\n\nJohn Thune (R-South Dakota)\n\nRichard Burr (R-North Carolina)\n\nRob Portman (R-Ohio)\n\nPat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania)\n\nTim Scott (R-South Carolina)\n\nBill Cassidy (R-Louisiana)\n\nJames Lankford (R-Oklahoma)\n\nSteve Daines (R-Montana)\n\nBen Sasse (R-Nebraska)\n\nJohn Barrasso (R-Wyoming)\n\nFull text of the letter can be read here or below.\n\nDecember 22, 2021\n\nThe Honorable Janet Yellen Secretary\n\nDepartment of the Treasury\n\n1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20220\n\nDear Secretary Yellen,\n\nWe remain focused on ensuring the agreement reached at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/G20 regarding international taxation allows U.S. businesses and workers to remain globally competitive. Because this Administration has failed to provide us with the detail necessary to evaluate the agreement, we renew our request for this information.\n\nU.S. engagement in the OECD negotiations has historically received broad, bipartisan support given the key objective of eliminating discriminatory digital services taxes (DSTs). Rather than prioritizing this shared goal, this Administration\u2019s focus shifted to its domestic agenda of increasing taxes on American businesses, including through a higher global minimum tax. The Administration\u2019s rush to reach a political agreement, tied to its domestic spending plans and pursuit of revenue, has come at the expense of thorough analysis and meaningful engagement with Congress and the business community, and may ultimately put U.S. businesses at risk.\n\nGiven this agreement\u2019s potential to jeopardize U.S. competitiveness, we continue to have concerns with the lack of detail underlying the approach being proposed under Pillar One and its lack of foundation in any discernible tax principles. Although you have stated that Pillar One will be \u201clargely revenue neutral\u201d to the United States, you have refused to provide us with an analysis substantiating your claim. You have also undercut this assertion by acknowledging that open design features may \u201cmaterially impact American companies and the fiscal position of the United States relative to other countries.\u201d\n\nWe are also concerned the Pillar One implementation timeline agreed to by this Administration is not realistic. The Administration\u2019s recent agreements allow existing DSTs to remain in place, pause all U.S. retaliatory options, and require implementation by December 31, 2023 in order for DSTs to be removed. Given the number of open issues remaining and the need for all countries to achieve consensus, implementation by 2023 is likely unachievable. These agreements appear to eliminate any U.S. leverage, while attempting to manipulate Congress to act\u2014potentially to the detriment of U.S. businesses and revenue\u2014in order for DST relief to be achieved.\n\nFurther troubling is Treasury\u2019s continued insistence that the United States once again move first by significantly increasing the U.S. global minimum tax. The United States already acted first when the global intangible low-tax income (GILTI) minimum tax was enacted \u2013 four years ago. Yet the United States remains the only country that imposes a global minimum tax on its companies. As Pillar Two does not require other countries to adopt a global minimum tax, we are not confident that our biggest foreign competitors, like China, will enact and implement a global minimum tax on the same terms or on the timeline agreed to at the OECD.\n\nFinally, suggestions that the United States could fully implement Pillar One without the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate through the treaty process are highly problematic. Beyond constitutional concerns, any suggestion of implementation through a congressional-executive agreement at this stage is entirely inappropriate: this Administration chose not to engage with Congress to establish a legislative procedure defining OECD negotiating objectives or providing a detailed oversight and consultation process. The Administration cannot now assert it has the authority to enter into such an agreement. Overall, any suggestion that Pillar One can be implemented absent treaty ratification is a dramatic shift from past precedent and calls into question the binding nature of any such agreement, thereby threatening the very tax certainty that many of our companies, and this Administration, claim to seek under Pillar One.\n\nAny opportunity for a bipartisan outcome will require greater transparency and engagement. We ask that you provide prompt answers to the following questions surrounding these proposals:\n\nPlease provide your estimate of the number of U.S. companies that would be in scope under Pillar One.\n\nWhile we understand there are open design issues, Treasury has clearly performed an analysis and identified a range of possible outcomes. Please provide point estimates of the following, and describe the key design issues on which these estimates depend:\n\na. The amount of profit that would be reallocated between the United States and foreign countries, including a breakdown of estimated amounts by country.\n\nb. The net revenue impact of Pillar One to the United States.\n\nThe Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) has long been engaged with the OECD negotiations at the request of both Congressional tax-writing committees. If you are unwilling to share this information directly with our members, will you commit to provide JCT with this information so they may provide an independent and confidential analysis?\n\nPlease provide a proposed plan for Pillar One implementation, including:\n\na. Treasury\u2019s proposed approach for implementation, including the expected treaty actions, domestic legislation, and changes to our competent authority agreements.\n\nb. Treasury\u2019s proposed timeline for the United States to implement Pillar One.\n\nc. If it is Treasury\u2019s position that treaty action will not be necessary to implement Pillar One, by what means and under what authority will the U.S. enter into a multilateral convention? Please provide a detailed analysis regarding how each of the United States\u2019 bilateral tax treaties\u2019 permanent establishment provisions will be modified through means other than the formal treaty approval process.\n\nd. If Pillar One is not implemented by December 31, 2023, will U.S. companies have any recourse for DSTs collected between now and that date? Will other countries be free to enact DSTs at that time?\n\ne. What are the OECD\u2019s plans for public consultation with stakeholders, including Congress and the U.S. business community, before design and implementation plans are finalized? What efforts are the Treasury Department taking to ensure meaningful public consultation takes place?\n\nWhat, if any, commitments has China made regarding its timing for implementation of a 15 percent global minimum tax? Have any of the other 134 countries joining the agreement provided you with a commitment regarding implementation?\n\nWe will continue to engage in good faith to evaluate the effects of this agreement on American workers, businesses, and revenue. However, this Administration\u2019s current posture of stonewalling our requests for relevant, material information has made it impossible to make this determination.\n\nWe appreciate your attention to these issues and look forward to your timely response to our questions.\n\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/young-joins-finance-republicans-to-demand-treasury-analysis-of-oecd-agreement/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8817561902105808, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}