Law Commons^™

The United States Interest Equalization Tax, Richard Pomp

Faculty Articles and Papers

The United States Interest Equalization tax is a one-time tax levied on certain foreign securities, proposed by President Kennedy in order to reduce the balance-of-payments deficit by restricting portfolio investment. Although the tax was enacted in 1964 as a short-term measure, it was continually extended and amended. This article explores the contours of the tax.

Prior to the tax, many foreign debt issues were attracting large amounts of capital due to their high interest rates. The IET attempts to equalize the yield of foreign debt issues with domestic debt issues by imposing a tax on the foreign issues and thus …