MUST WATCH: Jason Smith Ruthlessly Interrogates Biden Treasury Official

now recognize the chairman of the ways the Means Committee Mr Smith let me uh Begin by thanking chairman Kelly for for allowing me here um and for your leadership it we are incredibly grateful that you are at the realm of this committee um with your experience your knowledge and your passion and um glad to have you leading our tax writing committee um Mr plowgin no one in the Biden Administration has the power to write U.S tax policy the Supreme Court has said that the power to tax involves the power to destroy it is among the most solemn responsibilities of government and under the Constitution it is strictly controlled the power to tax demands the highest level of accountability to the American people especially when masses of jobs are at risk and while every member seated here today is accountable to voters you and secretary Yellen are not I have eight specific questions on treasury's engagement with the tax writing committees over the oecd negotiations and I ask that you please just to answer yes or no was Congress consulted prior to treasury agreeing to a UT PR surtax that would allow foreign governments to tax the U.S corporate U.S operations of U.S companies we do this we did receive input from Congress on the utpr during the that's a yes negotiations that's a yes we did receive input from Congress yes okay I have followed this issue very closely over the past three years and I don't think that's the case I know that treasury has never consulted with Republican members prior to a decision and unless you would like to revise your testimony please provide to this Committee in writing the date of the consultation the names of Treasury Personnel involved and the names of members of Congress that treasury met with can you get me that information we get input from Congress in in many different ways uh from can you give me that information from letters uh from consultation with staff as well yes or no can you provide this committee that information I do not have that information currently so how do you know what you just testified before Congress is accurate we receive input from Congress in multiple ways uh as I said what are those multiple ways and from what members through hearings through letters from Congress what he remembers the treasury is is called before house Ways and Means the secretary Yellen has uh testified before uh Ways and Means testified after she made the negotiations in regards to it we receive letters from members uh as well let me ask you another question was Congress consulted prior to treasury accepting this recent offer by foreign countries to delay the utpr surtax by just one year again we received input from Congress and from taxpayers uh with concerns you did not consult with the chairman of the tax writing committee so who did you consult with we received input from the tax writing committees on the utpr and concerns about no one from our committee on the Republican side so was it only the Democrat side you spoke with we speak with staff of the tax writing committee on a bipartisan basis on a regular basis did you in regards to this delay for one year did you speak to the majority in the tax writing Committee of ways and means we received input on concerns about the utpr and concerns about application of the utpr to apparent jurisdictions especially in the early years you received letters from us but did you did you consult with us before this decision yes or no we speak with the tax writing committees on a regular basis well I'm the chairman of this committee and it's almost crickets so you might want to do a little bit better in regards to that was Congress consulted prior to treasury agreeing that the USD us r d credit would be disadvantaged versus the r d credits of other countries like the UK I cannot speak to uh that decision that decision um this has been an ongoing process for multiple years um and that is a long-standing uh distinction in the pillow two rules yeah it's pretty detrimental to U.S businesses were you part of the negotiation I joined rejoined treasury in October of 2021 the pillow II negotiations have been going on since 2018. so since 2021 when you were in the negotiations R D hasn't been discussed around you we have raised the r d credit as an important issue in the negotiations did anyone in Congress sign off on the decision to give generous refundable corporate tax credits and Chinese State subsidies an advantage over more typical tax incentives like those enacted by Congress on a bipartisan basis yes or no again I was not a part of the negotiations uh when that decision was was made that's been an issue in the pillow to negotiations uh that's that's long-standing can you find that answer out for me I will check on that and come back to you I would love that to be submitted did treasury consult with Congress prior to treasury conceding that the U.S guilty rule would not receive full grandfathering status as the only Global minimum tax in the world yes or no I was not part of the negotiations at that juncture so once again can you provide me the answer to that question with whoever at treasury that was I will check on that did anyone in Congress sign off on treasury's decision to surrender U.S tax revenues from guilty and subpart F because of the oecd's preference for local corporate minimum taxes you're speaking about the qualified domestic minimum taxes um so we uh again received input on that the qualified domestic minimum taxes uh are consistent with all International tax rules that provide the primary taxing rights to a jurisdiction when it taxes its residents on uh income that arrives I understand what it is but my question was is did anyone in Congress sign off on treasury's decision again we receive input from Congress in in uh many ways once again I asked unless you would like to revise your testimony please provide to the committee in writing the date of the consultation with the members of Congress the names of Treasury Personnel involved and the names of members of Congress that treasury met with did anyone in Congress sign off on the decision for a 15 Global minimum tax rate to replace the 12 to 13 percent rate that the oecd was considering prior to President Biden taking office I was not part of the negotiations at that stage can you get that information for the committee I will check on that was Congress consulted prior to treasury agreeing on the scope of the pillar one profit allocation which skews heavily against U.S companies while exempting their foreign headquartered competitors I'm sorry what was the question was Congress once again was Congress consulted prior to treasury agreeing on the scope of the pillar one profit allocation which skews heavily against U.S companies while exempting their foreign headquartered competitors I I don't think that it exempts uh foreign under pillar one uh so I'm not sure I understand the the from my understanding it does so would you be opposed to it if it um did not exempt those four and a headquartered competitors uh sorry treasury be opposed to it I don't think that it does exempt uh foreign headquartered uh multinationals in pillar one so in regards to pillar one profit allocation period the treasury consult with any members of Congress we continue to consult with Congress about pillar one pillar one remains uh open there are many open issues on pillar one so it goes back to my simple question um you said yes you have um I would love for you all to provide in writing to this committee who you consulted with what what members of Treasury that consulted with us and what date um if treasury had consulted with Congress we would have avoided the multitude of Biden Administration Lawsons in the OCD negotiations my final question most of the observers are skeptical that China will ever truly comply with this oecd agreement secretary Yellen recently traveled to China to meet with the Chinese Communist Party officials during that trip was she able to obtain commitments from China that it would adopt the oecd agreement and implement it fairly secretary Yellen uh did meet with her Chinese counterparts and uh in an attempt to reset the relationship with China I do not know whether they spoke about pillar 2 but the utpr is an important part of pillar 2 that ensures that China and other jurisdictions do not gain an advantage if they do not adopt pillar two and that's why the utpr is an important part of pillar 2 it ensures it provides an enforcement mechanism that ensures that Chinese multinationals will be subject to the same minimum taxes other multiples we know China's uh really not that great of following rules and agreements we've seen that with our country that's why I was hopeful that the treasury secretary in her long visit to China would definitely have talked to them about whether they would adopt oecd and the agreement and implement it fairly I since it's so important I figured that would be top of her list whether by manipulating financial statements or by creating new state subsidies China will find ways to evade these oecd rules and and allowing CCP supported companies to gain a competitive advantage against the United States is yet another failure in these negotiations by the Biden Administration I yield back Mr chairman

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Length: 11min 33sec (693 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2023