House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures
Subcommittee Hearing on Reinsurance
On Wednesday, July 14, 2010, The Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures held a hearing on the taxation of reinsurance between affiliated entities. Please click on the links below for selected video highlights of the testimony:

Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw – responding to question by Chairman Neal 
Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw - responding to question by Congressman Earl Blumenauer 
Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw - responding to question by Chairman Neal 
William R. Berkley – Chairman and CEO of W. R. Berkley Corporation – concluding testimony 
John J. Degnan - Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of The Chubb Corporation – concluding testimony 

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Video Response: June 23, 2010 — Responding to a recent video by foreign insurers riddled with errors and inaccuracies, the Coalition for a Domestic Insurance Industry (CDII) released a video rebuttal today to ensure Congress and consumers have the facts regarding H.R. 3424. H.R. 3424 is designed to prevent foreign-owned insurers avoiding payment of their fair share of U.S. taxes by shifting profits to tax havens overseas. This legislation will actually benefit taxpaying consumers as it is expected to recapture an estimated $17 billion of revenue for the U.S. Treasury. THE COALITION FOR A DOMESTIC INSURANCE INDUSTRY URGES YOU NOT TO BUY INTO THE OPPONENTS' SCARE TACTICS. Third party reinsurance -- which adds needed capacity for catastrophic coverage -- remains unaffected by the proposed legislation.

Related Links:

• Foreign Insurers Use Deceptive Scare Tactics to Preserve Unfair Tax Advantage
  
• Online Astroturfing and Other Nifty Tricks from Foreign Insurers

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The Coalition for a Domestic Insurance Industry represents 13 major U.S.-based insurance groups with over 150,000 employees in offices located throughout the United States. Collectively, we pay substantial U.S. taxes, invest significantly in the municipal bond market, and offer millions of U.S. individuals and businesses financial protection from unpredictable risks. Legislation is essential to close a current law loophole that permits foreign-controlled insurers to strip their income into tax havens and avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. This loophole provides foreign-controlled insurers a significant tax advantage over their domestic competitors in attracting capital to write U.S. business. There is no credible reason why the United States tax system should favor foreign-owned groups over domestic insurers in selling insurance in the United States.

Contrary to opponents’ claims, closing the loophole will not harm insurance capacity, increase prices to consumers, contravene treaties, or interfere with free trade. It would merely prevent foreign-controlled insurers from stripping their U.S. income to tax havens and restore a level competitive playing field.

At a time of burgeoning deficits and possible tax increases on U.S. workers and businesses, it seems unfathomable that we would continue to allow foreign-based insurers to avoid U.S. tax on their U.S.-based business. It is time to close this loophole and prevent further erosion of our tax base.