Letter to President Clinton on Barclays case.

• Position: Barclays Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Board - California

On April 9, 1993, Tax Executives Institute sent the following letter to President Clinton, recommending that his Administration intercede in a Supreme Court case involving the State of California's constitutional authority to require the use of the worldwide combined reporting method for taxing multijurisdictional businesses. The letter, which urged the Federal Government to file a brief amicus curiae in the Supreme Court of the United States in the pending case of Barclays Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Board (No. 92-1384), was prepared under the aegis of TEl's State and Local Tax Committee, whose chair is Harry F. McKeon of the Biltrite Corporation.

On behalf of Tax Executives Institute, I am writing to urge your Administration to file a brief amicus curiae in the Supreme Court of the United States in the pending case of Barclays Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Board (No. 92-1384). We believe the Federal Government's involvement in the case is imperative because the Court's decision will affect not only the scope of the Foreign Commerce Clause of the Constitution but also the Administration's authority--and obligation--to "speak with one voice" in setting and implementing the foreign economic policy of the United States.

Tax Executives Institute is the principal association for corporate tax executives in North America. Our 4,700 members are employed by the largest 2,200 companies in the United States and Canada. The overwhelming majority of the companies represented by our membership are engaged in interstate commerce and a substantial number of them have significant sales or operations overseas. In addition, our membership includes individuals who are employed by the U.S. affiliates of foreign-based multinational groups. TEI is dedicated to promoting the uniform and equitable enforcement of the tax laws throughout the country, to reducing the costs and burdens of administration and compliance to the benefit of both the government and taxpayers, and to vindicating the Commerce Clause and other constitutional rights of all taxpayers.

The Barclays case involves the constitutionality of the State of California's worldwide combined reporting method (the so-called unitary method) for taxing multijurisdictional businesses. Although lower courts in California have held that the State's unitary method unconstitutionally interferes with the Federal Government's ability to conduct the country's foreign economic policy and subjects multinational businesses to...