On Sept. 20, Harvard Law School Professor Stephen Shay testified before the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The topic of the hearing was “Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code.
Read Professor Shay’s testimony (PDF)
The subcommittee examined the shifting of profits offshore by U.S. multinational corporations and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses included representatives from the Internal Revenue Service, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, multinational corporations, and an accounting firm. HLS alumni Reuven S. Avi-Yonah ’89, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law, and William J. Willkins ’77, chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, also testified.
Watch Professor Shay’s testimony:
Watch the full hearing at C-SPANvideo.org
Shay recently joined the law school faculty after extensive experience developing and overseeing implementation of U.S. international tax policy. During his career, he also served as a tax attorney in private practice, representing a wide range of domestic and multinational businesses.
As deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs at the U.S. Department of Treasury from 2009 to 2011, Shay played a significant role in the development of proposals for the FY 2011 budget, was instrumental in structuring foreign account information reporting provisions passed as part of the 2010 HIRE Act, and helped develop international tax anti-abuse proposals that were passed as part of the 2010 Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act.
Shay also has served as the United States delegate to the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.
Previously a partner for 22 years at Ropes & Gray, Shay has extensive tax counseling and controversy experience advising multinational companies, private equity funds, financial institutions, global institutional investors and foreign governments on cross-border taxation matters and transfer pricing. While in private practice, Shay regularly published scholarly and practice articles relating to international taxation, and testified for law reform before Congressional tax-writing committees.
In a Q&A with the Harvard Law Bulletin, Shay discussed tax expenditures. See “Reforming Tax Expenditures Alone Won’t Fix the Deficit,” Harvard Law Bulletin, Winter 2012.