California Assembly Bill AJR12 Amended / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AJR 12AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 26, 2009 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Block and Salas (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bill Berryhill, Cook, Fuentes, Gilmore, Jeffries, Lieu, Monning, Portantino, Price, and Silva) (Coauthors: Senators DeSaulnier, Florez, and Wright) MARCH 27, 2009 Relative to  benefits for Filipino Americans who fought in World War II.   taxation of corporate income shelte   red in offshore tax haven jurisdictions.  LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AJR 12, as amended, Block.  Filipino veterans: benefits.   Offshore tax haven jurisdictions.  This measure would request that the  President and the  Congress  and the President  of the United States enact legislation  granting veterans' benefits to the Filipino Americans who fought in World War II in the United States Armed Forces   that closes the corporate federal tax loopholes currently allowing the sheltering of income in offshore tax haven countries, and, instead, promotes transparency, cooperation, and tax compliance  . Fiscal committee: no.  WHEREAS, In bad economic times, states are forced to cut essential services or raise taxes in order to balance their budgets, and recapturing lost revenues otherwise due to a state is one mechanism in which government can reduce painful cuts without raising new taxes; and   WHEREAS, A United States corporation is taxed on all of its income, regardless of source, and is allowed a credit for any taxes paid to a foreign country on its foreign-source income; and   WHEREAS, A United States corporation can operate globally in foreign countries directly through a branch or indirectly through its ownership in a foreign subsidiary; and   WHEREAS, Jurisdictions listed as "tax havens," some of which have no or nominal taxes, or financial privacy jurisdictions have been identified on reports prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and other sources; and   WHEREAS, The United States Department of the Treasury has found that some United States corporations have aggressively moved income to offshore jurisdictions to avoid United States taxes because income that should properly be attributed to activities in the United States is being attributed to those tax haven countries; and   WHEREAS, The United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and other federal governmental entities have released findings regarding the growth of multinational corporations' use of tax haven countries to shelter income that would otherwise be reported in the United States through use of related companies with little or no substantial economic presence or significant economic activity of the corporation in the tax haven country; and  WHEREAS, President Obama has voiced his support for efforts to combat offshore tax evasion and the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue has stated that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made closing this particular loophole a top priority; and   WHEREAS, United States Senator Carl Levin introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act on March 2, 2009, to target offshore tax abuses that deny the United States Treasury of an estimated $100 billion in revenue each year, reward tax dodgers using offshore secrecy laws to hide legitimate taxable income from the United States, and burden other United States taxpayers who lawfully report their appropriately United States-sourced income; and   WHEREAS, Some states in the United States have enacted legislation to include the income and apportionment factors of affiliated corporations doing business in or having income derived from or attributed to a tax haven country; and   WHEREAS, California permits corporations that conduct business in the state to elect to calculate their Corporate Tax Law liability due to the state based on income only from sources within the United States and, as identified by federal officials, corporations are known to redirect income to foreign subsidiaries located in offshore tax haven countries to hide those corporations' true income and to avoid paying their fair share of state tax; and   WHEREAS, The Franchise Tax Board of California estimates that California's direct revenues lost to corporations sheltering funds in tax haven countries that should appropriately be sourced to activities in California is approximately $130 million per year and growing; and   WHEREAS, Other states in the United States are losing revenues from the same offshore sheltering practices of corporations; now, therefore, be it   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That in order to reduce anticipated cuts to services and lessening the need for increased taxes, the Legislature of the State of California respectfully requests the President and the Congress of the United States to enact legislation that closes the corporate federal tax loopholes currently allowing the sheltering of income in offshore tax haven countries, and, instead, promotes transparency, cooperation, and tax compliance; and be it further   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and the Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.   WHEREAS, The Republic of the Philippines (hereafter the Philippines) was a colony of the United States, and, as a result, the United States government possessed authority over that nation; and   WHEREAS, On July 26, 1941, in anticipation of war with Japan, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order calling over 200,000 Filipino soldiers to serve in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE); and   WHEREAS, Ten hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the United States military bases in the Phillippines were bombed, causing the war to spill onto the Filipino people; and   WHEREAS, On March 27, 1942, Congress passed Title 8 of the Second War Powers Act, which provided that noncitizens who served in active duty in the United States Armed Forces during World War II shall be granted United States citizenship, meaning that every USAFFE soldier had the right to equal treatment under the law; and   WHEREAS, On April 9, 1942, the United States surrendered the Philippines to Japan, leaving 75,000 USAFFE and regular soldiers to the Bataan Death March where close to 10,000 died along the trudge to P.O.W. camps; and   WHEREAS, Even after the American surrender, Filipinos continued to resist, gathering thousands more soldiers and forming guerilla units, who, in coordination with United States command, conducted operations, collected intelligence, and helped prepare for the American return; and   WHEREAS, On September 2, 1945, Japanese military command surrendered the Philippines back to American forces ending World War II on the Philippine islands, and Philippine nationals who served in the war began filing for naturalization at the United States Embassy in Manila; and   WHEREAS, Filipino men and women served courageously in the fight for freedom and democracy during World War II, under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur; and   WHEREAS, After the war, the New Philippine Scouts were formed to help reestablish United States authority in the Pacific, causing thousands more Filipino soldiers to be called to serve the United States; and   WHEREAS, In November of 1945, adjudication of applications for naturalization of Filipino veterans was stopped, per order of the United States Department of State and the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; and   WHEREAS, In December of 1945, Congress passed legislation amending the immigration and naturalization law, setting a deadline of December 1946 for Filipino veterans applying for citizenship; and   WHEREAS, On February 18, 1946, Congress enacted the 1946 Rescission Act, which denied World War II Filipino veterans, including the USAFFE, the guerillas, and the New Philippine Scouts equal status as American veterans, which stripped them of equal recognition, compensation, and benefits; and   WHEREAS, In October of 1990, the Immigration Act of 1990 was passed, granting United States citizenship to Filipino veterans, which allowed 24,000 Filipino World War II veterans, in their 70s and 80s, to receive citizenship, but who were still denied equal status as American veterans; and   WHEREAS, The course of correction has continued under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and under many legislative reforms regarding health care, benefits for surviving spouses, and burial rights; and   WHEREAS, Most families of Filipino World War II veterans who are residing in the United States, have been longing to reunite with their sons, daughters, and minor grandchildren whom they left behind, between 1990 and 1995, when they were naturalized and finally established residence in the United States; now, therefore, be it   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California respectfully requests the President and the Congress of the United States to enact legislation granting veterans' benefits to the Filipino Americans who fought in World War II in the United States Armed Forces; and be it further   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.