[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1068 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1068

 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a tax on certain 
 securities transactions to the extent required to recoup the net cost 
                 of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 13, 2009

 Mr. DeFazio (for himself, Mr. Welch, Ms. Sutton, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Wu, 
  Mr. Stark, Ms. DeLauro, and Ms. Edwards of Maryland) 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 certain 
 securities transactions to the extent required to recoup the net cost 
                 of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Let Wall Street Pay for Wall 
Street's Bailout Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Bush Administration allocated the first $350 
        billion of TARP funds in a manner that has outraged the Nation 
        by failing to provide the most basic oversight of the funds.
            (2) Congress has declined to block the remaining $350 
        billion of TARP funds despite the lack of oversight and the 
        record fiscal year 2009 budget deficit estimated at $1.2 
        trillion.
            (3) The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 
        has committed more than a trillion dollars to stabilize the 
        economy by bailing out various banks deemed ``too big to 
        fail''.
            (4) The $700 billion TARP fund and the new Federal Reserve 
        lending facilities were created to protect Wall Street 
        investors; therefore, the same Wall Street investors should pay 
        for this infusion of taxpayer money.
            (5) The easiest method to raise the money from Wall Street 
        is a securities transfer tax, a tax that has a negligible 
        impact on the average investor.
            (6) This transfer tax would be on the sale and purchase of 
        financial instruments such as stock, options, and futures. A 
        quarter percent (0.25 percent) tax on financial transactions 
        could raise approximately $150 billion a year.
            (7) The United States had a transfer tax from 1914 to 1966. 
        The Revenue Act of 1914 (Act of Oct. 22, 1914 (ch. 331, 38 
        Stat. 745)) levied a 0.2 percent 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.
            (8) All revenue generated by this transfer tax should be 
        deposited in the general fund of the Treasury of the United 
        States, scaled to meet the net cost of these bailouts, and 
        phase out when the cost of the bailouts are repaid.

SEC. 3. RECOUPMENT OF DEFICIT ARISING FROM FEDERAL BAILOUT.

    (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 an amount equal to the applicable 
percentage of the value of the security 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) Applicable Percentage.--For purposes of this section--
            ``(1) In general.--The term `applicable percentage' means 
        the lesser of--
                    ``(A) the specified percentage, or
                    ``(B) 0.25 percent.
            ``(2) Specified percentage.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The term `specified percentage' 
                means, with respect to any taxable year beginning in a 
                calendar year, the percentage that the Secretary 
                estimates would result in the aggregate revenue to the 
                Treasury under this section for such taxable year and 
                all prior taxable years to equal the Secretary's 
                estimate of the net cost (if any) to the Federal 
                Government of--
                            ``(i) carrying out the Troubled Asset 
                        Relief Program established under title 1 of the 
                        Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, 
                        and
                            ``(ii) the exercise of authority by the 
                        Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
                        System under the third undesignated paragraph 
                        of section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (12 
                        U.S.C. 343).
                    ``(B) Determination of percentage.--Such percentage 
                shall be determined by the Secretary not later than 30 
                days after the date of the enactment of this section, 
                and redetermined for taxable years beginning in each 
                calendar year thereafter. Such percentage shall take 
                into account the Secretary's most recent estimation of 
                such net cost. Any specified percentage determined 
                under this paragraph which is not a multiple of 1/100th 
                of a percentage point shall be rounded to the nearest 
                1/100th of a percentage point.
    ``(d) 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.
    ``(e) 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 sales occurring more than 30 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
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