国际英语新闻：Geithner: U.S. to fight international tax dodgers

WASHINGTON, Mar. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday that the Obama administration will take actions to tackle international tax dodgers.

    The administration seeks to close the "tax gap" by tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse the tax laws, including international tax evasion efforts, Geithner said in a written testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee.

    He was talking about key revenue provisions in Obama's first budget submitted to Congress last week. "Tax gap" is the difference between what taxpayers legally owe and the amount that they pay.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee on an overview of Obama administration's FY2010 budget on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2009.

The budget addresses the use of offshore structures and accounts by U.S. corporations and individuals to avoid and evade U.S. taxes, he said.

    "Over the next several months, the President will propose a series of legislative and enforcement measures to reduce such U.S. tax evasion and avoidance," said the secretary.

    "Some proposals will focus on the rules in our tax code that put those who invest and create jobs in the United States at a disadvantage," he said.

    "We will propose rules to both reform U.S. corporations' ability to defer foreign earnings and defer high income individuals and corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxation," he added.

    Obama's first budget, the budget for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, 2009, cuts taxes for 95 percent of working Americans and provides additional tax relief for lower-income families and students seeking higher educations.

    It also includes tax provisions to help small businesses, Geithner said.

    The budget also seeks to restore fairness to the tax code, he said. "For example, the budget proposes to tax the compensation paid to hedge fund managers, private equity partners and others in the same way that we tax the wages paid to ordinary American workers."