Four Senators Reintroduce the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act

     On September 19, 2013, Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., and three cosponsors introduced S. 1533, the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (STHAA).  The co-sponsors touted the bill as a means to produce $220 billion in additional revenue over 10 years, according to estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation, by ending so-called “tax gimmicks.”[1] The floor statement of Sen. Levin noted that fifteen small business, labor, and public interest groups support the bill.  The 113^th Congress is the sixth Congress in which Sen. Levin introduced a comprehensive bill to combat  offshore and tax shelter abuses.  A number of provisions from past bills have made into law, such as measures to curb abusive foreign trusts, close offshore dividend tax loopholes, and strengthen penalties on tax shelter promoters.  President Obama cosponsored the 2005 and 2007 version of the STHAA when he was in the Senate.[2]