U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Ways and Means Committee chairman, sent a letter on Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, outlining concerns regarding the country-by-country (CbC) reporting requirements in the works at the Treasury Department.
The letter urged the secretary to provide a prompt response to their earlier request for information on the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which is currently under development by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
“Rather than expend additional administrative resources on the CbC regulatory project, we encourage Treasury to focus in the near term on preparing and providing the legal memorandum and other documentation requested in our June 9 letter to you,” Hatch and Ryan said in the letter. “In addition, we ask that Treasury officials consider the results of the GAO analysis of the BEPS project and recommendations before moving forward with any CbC-related guidance.”
Two months ago, Hatch made a request to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking it to undertake an in-depth analysis of the multiple provisions and actions under consideration in the OECD’s BEPS project – specifically looking at how such policies would impact the U.S. economy.
Hatch has represented Utah in the U.S. Senate since 1976. Born in Pittsburgh in 1934, Hatch was educated at Brigham Young University and the University of Pittsburgh Law School and serves on the following committees: Finance; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Judiciary.