BILL NUMBER: AJR 12 AMENDED
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.