[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7125 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7125

     To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a tax on 
                        securities transactions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 26, 2008

 Mr. DeFazio (for himself, Mr. Stark, Mr. George Miller of California, 
 Ms. Slaughter, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Holt, Mr. Scott 
 of Virginia, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Capuano, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Sires, 
 Ms. Woolsey, Ms. Lee, Ms. Edwards of Maryland, Mr. Wu, Mr. Kucinich, 
   Ms. Hirono, Mr. Melancon, Mr. Chandler, Mr. Welch of Vermont, Ms. 
  Kaptur, Mr. Filner, Ms. Watson, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Roybal-
 Allard, Mr. Costello, and Ms. Waters) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a tax on 
                        securities transactions.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Let Wall Street 
Pay for Wall Street's Illiquid Assets Act of 2008''.
    (b) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Bush Administration is asking Congress to authorize 
        $700 billion to cover the ``illiquid'' assets of Wall Street. 
        This will further worsen our budget deficit.
            (2) The $700 billion is to protect Wall Street investors; 
        therefore, the same Wall Street investors should pay for this 
        infusion of taxpayer money.
            (3) The easiest method to raise the $700 billion from Wall 
        Street is a securities transfer tax, a tax that has a 
        negligible impact on the average investor.
            (4) This transfer tax would be on the sale and purchase of 
        financial instruments such as stock, options, and futures. A 
        quarter percent (0.25%) tax on financial transactions could 
        raise approximately $150 billion a year.
            (5) The United States had a transfer tax from 1914 to 1966. 
        The Revenue Act of 1914 levied a 0.2% tax on all sales or 
        transfers of stock. In 1932, Congress more than doubled the tax 
        to help overcome the budgetary challenges during the Great 
        Depression.
            (6) The United Kingdom currently has a modest financial 
        transaction tax of 0.5 percent.
            (7) The Securities and Exchange Commission currently 
        implements a very small tax per transaction to cover its costs; 
        therefore this additional transfer tax is easy to implement.
            (8) All revenue generated by this transfer tax shall be 
        directed to the general treasury.

SEC. 2. TAX ON SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 36 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 
amended by inserting after subchapter B the following new subchapter:

             ``Subchapter C--Tax on Securities Transactions

``Sec. 4475. Tax on securities transactions.

``SEC. 4475. TAX ON SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS.

    ``(a) Imposition of Tax.--There is hereby imposed a tax on each 
covered securities transaction of 0.25 percent of the value of the 
instruments involved in such transaction.
    ``(b) By Whom Paid.--The tax imposed by this section shall be paid 
by the trading facility on which the transaction occurs.
    ``(c) Covered Securities Transaction.--The term `covered securities 
transaction' means--
            ``(1) any transaction to which subsection (b), (c), or (d) 
        of section 31 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 applies, 
        and
            ``(2) any transaction subject to the exclusive jurisdiction 
        of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
    ``(d) Administration.--The Secretary shall carry out this section 
in consultation with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the 
Commodity Futures Trading Commission.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of subchapters for chapter 36 of 
such Code is amended by inserting after the item relating to subchapter 
B the following new item:

           ``subchapter c. tax on securities transactions.''.

    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to transactions occurring on or after January 1, 2009.
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