House Legislation Introduction Thread

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this article of expulsion.

[Classic Conservative]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this article of expulsion.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this article of expulsion.

[NeverAgain]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this article of expulsion.

[Clark Kent]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this article of expulsion.

[Blair]

Can we introduce the articles as soon as possible?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Yes, these need to be brought to the floor. I assume that either Classic (as Dean of the House of Representatives) or Lumine (as President of the Congress) has the authority to initiate expulsion proceedings in the absence of a Speaker.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Yes, these need to be brought to the floor. I assume that either Classic (as Dean of the House of Representatives) or Lumine (as President of the Congress) has the authority to initiate expulsion proceedings in the absence of a Speaker.

I've checked - Article II, Section 3 of the House Rules and Procedures states that "The most senior Representative, who isn't on Leave of Absence... shall retain the powers and prerogatives as Speaker until the election of the Speaker." Classic Conservative, as the most senior member of the House, is the incumbent Dean of the House of Representatives and therefore responsible for opening a vote on the articles of expulsion.

[Classic Conservative]

I'm so sorry, I started school today and it slipped my mind.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this legislation.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this legislation.

[Clyde1998]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this legislation.

[NeverAgain]

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4 other members will have to sponsor this before it can be brought to the House floor.

I sponsor this legislation.

[NeverAgain]

[quote]Corporate Tax Reform Bill of 2016

Introduction:

Atlasia’s system of business taxation is in need of reform. We have a relatively narrow corporate tax base compared to other countries—a tax base reduced by loopholes, tax expenditures, and tax planning. The resulting system distorts choices, such as where to produce, what to invest in, how to finance a business, and what business form to use. And it does too little to encourage job creation and investment in the United States while allowing firms to benefit from incentives to locate production and shift profits overseas. The system is also too complicated, especially for Atlasia’s small businesses.

These five sections will not only help expand our tax base, but also help small businesses (and even large ones) thrive.

Section One: Eliminating Ineffective Loopholes and Subsides

i. We will address current depreciation schedules due to their consistent overstatement of economic assets. In an increasingly global economy, accelerated depreciation may be a less effective way to increase investment and job creation than reinvesting the savings from moving towards economic depreciation into reducing tax rates. We will reduce Accelerated Depreciation Schedules by 33% for Businesses worth over 100M.

ii. Reducing the bias toward debt financing in investment. Our reforms should take additional steps to reduce the tax preference for debt-financed investment, such as “haircutting” corporate interest deductions by about 10%. Limiting interest deductibility would finance
lower tax rates and do more to encourage investment in the United States than many other ways
to pay for rate reductions.

iii. Ending dozens of unfair business tax loopholes and tax expenditures that create a heightened tax rate:

• Ending "Last In First Out Accounting" - Under the “last-in, first out” method of
accounting for inventories, it is assumed that the cost of the items of inventory that are sold is equal to the cost of the items of inventory that were most recently purchased or produced. This assumption overstates the cost of goods sold and understates the value of inventories. Under this reform, we would end this system, bringing us in line with international standards and simplifying the tax system.

• Ending Tax Code Preferences For Oil and Gas Companies - The tax code currently subsidizes oil and gas production through tax expenditures that provide preferences for these industries over others. These reforms would repeal more than a dozen tax preferences available for fossil fuels.

• Reform treatment of insurance industries and their products -  Under this bill, we will reform the treatment of insurance companies and products to improve information reporting, simplify tax treatment, and close loopholes, including one in which corporations shelter income using life insurance contracts on their officers, directors, or employees.

• Reform the treatment of measurement and character of gains - This bill would reform the treatment of capital gains, including modifying rules for like-kind exchanges, which allow investors in certain assets to avoid realizing a capital gain, and thus to defer payment of tax, through a transaction structured as an exchange rather than a sale.


Section Two: Strengthening American Innovation

i. Expand, simplify, and make permanent the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit. The R+E Tax Credit is used for investment in new research and innovation, but is only renewed off-and-on annually. Making this permanent and increasing its range would help idealistic young people and small businesses bring their ideas into reality. We will also expand it for all start-ups and make it entirely refundable.

ii. Consolidate, enhance, and permanently extend key tax incentives to encourage investment clean energy and the tax credits for the production of renewable electricity and investment in renewable energy technologies. These reforms would provide a strong, consistent incentive to encourage investments in renewable energy sources, like wind and solar. The production tax credit and investment tax credit for renewable electricity generation are extended off and on, but permanent tax incentives for clean energy investment are needed to meet the challenge of climate change and address the harmful consequences of pollution. In addition, the structure of the renewable production tax credit has required many firms to invest in inefficient tax planning through tax equity structures so that they can benefit even when they do not have a tax liability in a given year because of a lack of taxable income. This framework would eliminate the need for these strategies by making the production tax credit refundable. In addition to these reforms to support clean energy, we will eliminate tax subsidies for oil and gas as described above.

iii. Effectively cut the top corporate tax rate on manufacturing income to 20 percent by reforming the domestic production activities deduction. The manufacturing sector plays an outsized role in the U.S. economy and is particularly important for future job creation, innovation, and
economic growth. For this reason, this bill will reform the current domestic production activities deduction. It would focus the deduction more on manufacturing activity and expand the deduction to 10.7 percent, effectively cutting the top corporate tax rate for manufacturing income to 20 percent.

Section Three: Strengthening the International Tax System

i. Reduce large corporations' ability to move and avoid the Atlasian tax system. A minimum tax on foreign earnings would ensure that no matter what tax planning techniques an Atlasian corporation engages in, and no matter where it reports its profits, it would still face a tax rate of at least 19 percent. Unlike the current system, there would be no “deferral” of tax—the minimum tax would apply to profits in the year they are earned. The minimum tax would stop our tax system from generously rewarding companies for moving profits offshore. In addition, other elements of the plan would make it harder to shift profits overseas by limiting interest stripping, transfer pricing abuses, and inversions.

ii. Reduce the incentive to shift production overseas. The current system encourages companies to shift production overseas to take advantage of indefinite tax deferral on the resulting earnings— and to establish a legal toehold in a foreign country to enable even more earnings to be shifted there on paper. The minimum tax would also reduce these incentives by ensuring that the earnings of Atlas multinationals’ foreign subsidiaries are taxed on a current basis at a rate of at least 19 percent.

iii. Increase the competitiveness of Atlasian Corporations Atlasian multinationals often have legitimate non-tax reasons to locate production overseas, either to serve local markets or because of specific competitive advantages to overseas production. Other countries with territorial systems effectively do not tax firms on their overseas production, and so those firms incur no taxes when earnings are distributed to the parent company in its home country (that is, upon “repatriation”). In addition, foreign resident companies that produce locally face only that country’s corporate tax rate. In contrast, Atlasian companies face relative high explicit or implicit repatriation taxes, and therefore may operate at a tax disadvantage. In order to balance the two goals above with the desire not to disadvantage American multinationals vis-à-vis their competitors, the plan sets the global minimum tax rate lower than the full 28 percent rate proposed for reform—and offers a deduction for income from active business investment.

[NeverAgain]

Part Two!

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[Terry the Fat Shark]

End relations with Saudi Arabia Act

A bill recommending the Atlasian government end all ties with the nation of Saudi Arabia, effective as soon as possible.

1. Asserts that Saudi Arabia has a significantly poor history regarding civil rights, including but not limited to the execution of gay citizens, the squashing of woman's rights throughout the nation including not be able to drive cars or travel without a man accompanying.

2. Asserts that strong evidence continues to exist that Saudi Arabia meddles in the affairs of other Middle Eastern nations and in part allows funding of the Islamic State, a terrorist group with a history of attacking NATO, to go unchecked.

3. Asserts that Saudi Arabia does not have the interests of Atlasia and its democracy at heart and thus should not be treated as an ally or partner in any future dealings within the Middle East.

4. Notes that this is a non-binding bill which does not require the Atlasian Government to take any action against Saudi Arabia, but highly recommends that the Atlasian Government cease relations with the nation of Saudi Arabia.

[Clyde1998]

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Just bumping this.

[Clyde1998]

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[Pragmatic Conservative]

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This was introduced by Enduro in the Public Consultation and Legislation Submissions. I would like to Co-Sponsor this legislation.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

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This was introduced by Enduro in the Public Consultation and Legislation Submissions. I would like to Co-Sponsor this legislation.

I would also like to co-sponsor this along with Representative 1184AZ if 1184AZ is ok with this.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

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This was introduced by Enduro in the Public Consultation and Legislation Submissions. I would like to Co-Sponsor this legislation.

I would also like to co-sponsor this along with Representative 1184AZ if 1184AZ is ok with this.

That would be fine.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

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[Pragmatic Conservative]

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[Pragmatic Conservative]

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I assume this is the proper protocol.