H.R. 519 – Reading Mode

112th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 519

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 8, 2011

Ms. Ros-Lehtinen introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

A BILL

To secure the return to the United States the $179 million overpaid into the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund as of December 31, 2009, and for other purposes.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the United Nations Tax Equalization Refund Act of 2011.

Findings

Congress finds the following:

(1)

Approximately $180 million in United States taxpayer funds overpaid to the United Nations remain in the hands of the United Nations because the United States has not requested the return of those funds.

(2)

The funds were paid into the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund (TEF), which is used to reimburse United Nations staff members subject to United States income taxes for the cost of those taxes.

(3)

In recent years, the TEF has taken in considerably more money than it has paid out, with the United States apparently overpaying into the TEF by $52.2 million in the 2008–2009 timeframe alone.

(4)

According to the United Nations Financial Report and Audited Financial Statements released on July 29, 2010, As of 31 December 2009, an amount of $179.0 million was payable to the United States of America pending instructions as to its disposition..

(5)

That balance was allowed to accrue notwithstanding United Nations Financial Regulation 4.12, which states that any such surpluses shall be credited against the assessed contributions due from that Member State the following year..

(6)

Allowing the United Nations to regularly overcharge the United States and to retain those overpayments, or to spend them on wholly unrelated activities, is a disservice to American taxpayers and a subversion of the Congressional budget process.

Refund of United States taxpayer dollars from the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund

(a)

Statement of policy

It shall be the policy of the United States—

(1)

to direct the United Nations to return to the United States the $179,010,326 overpaid into the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund (TEF) as of December 31, 2009, which the United Nations itself has identified as “payable to the United States of America”;

(2)

to use the voice and vote of the United States to press the United Nations to reform its TEF assessment procedures to reduce the repeated discrepancies between TEF income and expenditures; and

(3)

to annually instruct the United Nations to return to the United States any TEF surplus funds payable to the United States.

(b)

Certification and withholding

Until the Secretary of State submits to the appropriate congressional committees a certification that the United Nations has returned to the United States the $179,010,326 identified by the United Nations in its July 29, 2010 Financial Report as payable to the United States, the United States shall withhold $179,010,326 from the United States contribution to the regularly assessed biennial budget of the United Nations.

Definitions

In this Act—

(1)

the term appropriate congressional committees means—

(A)

the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and

(B)

the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and

(2)

the term United Nations Tax Equalization Fund or TEF means the fund established under the provisions of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 973 (December 15, 1955) to equalize to net pay of United Nations staff members.