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Financial Asset Securitization Investment Trust
A financial asset securitization investment trust (FASIT) was a type of special purpose entity used for securitization of any debt and issuance of asset-backed securities, defined under section 1621 of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, and repealed under section 835 of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. They were similar to a Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC) but could also securitize non-mortgage debts, such as automobile loans and credit card debt. In the Enron scandal, Enron used FASITs to avoid Subpart F rules on foreign income. The United States Congress Joint Committee on Taxation staff, in their investigation of the Enron scandal, recommended that FASIT rules be repealed as they were "not widely used in the manner envisioned by the Congress and thus have failed to further their intended purposes" and because of the "abuse potential inherent in the FASIT vehicle". References * See also * Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit A rea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Purpose Entity
A special-purpose entity (SPE; or, in Europe and India, special-purpose vehicle/SPV; or, in some cases in each EU jurisdiction, FVC, financial vehicle corporation) is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited partnership) created to fulfill narrow, specific or temporary objectives. SPEs are typically used by companies to isolate the firm from financial risk. A formal definition is "The Special Purpose Entity is a fenced organization having limited predefined purposes and a legal personality". Normally a company will transfer assets to the SPE for management or use the SPE to finance a large project thereby achieving a narrow set of goals without putting the entire firm at risk. SPEs are also commonly used in complex financings to separate different layers of equity infusion. Commonly created and registered in tax havens, SPEs allow tax avoidance strategies unavailable in the home district. Round-tripping is one such strategy. In addition, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Securitization
Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans or credit card debt obligations (or other non-debt assets which generate receivables) and selling their related cash flows to third party investors as securities, which may be described as bonds, pass-through securities, or collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Investors are repaid from the principal and interest cash flows collected from the underlying debt and redistributed through the capital structure of the new financing. Securities backed by mortgage receivables are called mortgage-backed securities (MBS), while those backed by other types of receivables are asset-backed securities (ABS). The granularity of pools of securitized assets can mitigate the credit risk of individual borrowers. Unlike general corporate debt, the credit quality of securitized debt is non- stationary due to changes in volatility that are time- and stru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asset-backed Security
An asset-backed security (ABS) is a security whose income payments, and hence value, are derived from and collateralized (or "backed") by a specified pool of underlying assets. The pool of assets is typically a group of small and illiquid assets which are unable to be sold individually. Pooling the assets into financial instruments allows them to be sold to general investors, a process called securitization, and allows the risk of investing in the underlying assets to be diversified because each security will represent a fraction of the total value of the diverse pool of underlying assets. The pools of underlying assets can include common payments from credit cards, auto loans, and mortgage loans, to esoteric cash flows from aircraft leases, royalty payments, or movie revenues. Often a separate institution, called a special purpose vehicle, is created to handle the securitization of asset backed securities. The special purpose vehicle, which creates and sells the securities, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Small Business Job Protection Act Of 1996
The Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 () is a United States federal law. It was sponsored by Rep. Bill Archer ( R- TX) and it was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The stated intent of the bill is: "To provide tax relief for small businesses, to protect jobs, to create opportunities,to increase the take home pay of workers, to amend the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 relating to the payment of wages to employees who use employer owned vehicles, and to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase the minimum wage rate and to prevent job loss by providing flexibility to employers in complying with minimum wage and overtime requirements under that Act." Effects 401(k) The Act created a simplified 401(k) retirement plan to make it easier for small businesses to offer pension plans to their employees. Adoption A nonrefundable tax credit of up to $5,000 per child for adoption expenses and $6,000 for children with special needs was established. Entitled "Removal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Jobs Creation Act Of 2004
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 () was a federal tax act that repealed the export tax incentive (ETI), which had been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization several times and sparked retaliatory tariffs by the European Union. It also contained numerous tax credits for agricultural and business institutions as well as the repeal of excise taxes on both fuel and alcohol and the creation of tax credits for biofuels. The bill was introduced by Representative Bill Thomas on June 4, 2004, passed the House June 17, the Senate on July 15, and was signed by President George W. Bush on October 22. Summary of provisions The Office of Tax Analysis of the United States Department of the Treasury summarized the tax changes as follows: * created deduction for income from U.S. production activities * repealed exclusion for extraterritorial income * changed interest expense allocation rules A report by the Tax Policy Center identifies the following main provisions and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit
A real estate mortgage investment conduit (REMIC) is "an entity that holds a fixed pool of mortgages and issues multiple classes of interests in itself to investors" under U.S. Federal income tax law and is "treated like a partnership for Federal income tax purposes with its income passed through to its interest holders". REMICs are used for the pooling of mortgage loans and issuance of mortgage-backed securities and have been a key contributor to the success of the mortgage-backed securities market over the past several decades. The federal income taxation of REMICs is governed primarily under of Part IV of Subchapter M of Chapter 1 of Subtitle A of the Internal Revenue Code ( 26 U.S.C.). To qualify as a REMIC, an organization makes an "election" to do so by filing a Form 1066 with the Internal Revenue Service, and by meeting certain other requirements. They were introduced in 1987 as the typical vehicle for the securitization of residential mortgages in the United States. REMIC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Car Finance
Car finance refers to the various financial products which allow someone to acquire a car, including car loans and leases. Car purchases The most common method of buying a car in the United States is borrowing the money and then paying it off in installments. Over 85% of new cars and half of used cars are financed (as opposed to being paid for in a lump sum with cash). Roughly 30% of new vehicles during the same time period were leased. There are two primary methods of borrowing money to buy a car: direct and indirect. A direct loan is one that the borrower arranges with a lender directly. Indirect financing is arranged by the car dealership where the car is purchased. Legally, an indirect “loan” is not technically a loan; when a car buyer obtains financing facilitated by a dealership, the buyer and dealer sign a Retail Installment Sales Contract rather than a loan agreement. The dealer then typically sells or assigns that contract to a bank, credit union, or other financi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Credit Card Debt
Credit card debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. Debt grows through the accrual of interest and penalties when the consumer fails to repay the company for the money they have spent. The results of not paying this debt on time are that the company will charge a late payment penalty and report the late payment to credit rating agencies. Being late on a payment is sometimes referred to as being in " default". The late payment penalty itself increases the amount of the consumer's total debt. Additionally, a customer may see their interest rate drastically increased as a result of missing multiple payments. The penalty APR rate varies from card to card and is usually disclosed in literature at the time of a credit card application and also as paper inserts in the envelope that contains a credit card directly shipped to a customer's residence. Research shows that people with credit card debt are more likely to for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enron Scandal
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal involving Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. Upon being publicized in October 2001, the company declared bankruptcy and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen then one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world was effectively dissolved. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. history at that time, Enron was cited as the biggest audit failure. Enron was formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay after merging Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. Several years later, when Jeffrey Skilling was hired, Lay developed a staff of executives that – by the use of accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting – were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and other executives misled Enron's board of directors and audit committee on high-risk accounting practices and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subpart F
Controlled foreign corporation (CFC) rules are features of an income tax system designed to limit artificial deferral of tax by using offshore low taxed entities. The rules are needed only with respect to income of an entity that is not currently taxed to the owners of the entity. Generally, certain classes of taxpayers must include in their income currently certain amounts earned by foreign entities they or related persons control. A set of rules generally defines the types of owners and entities affected, the types of income or investments subject to current inclusion, exceptions to inclusion, and means of preventing double inclusion of the same income. Countries with CFC rules include the United States (since 1962), the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Russia (since 2015), Sweden, and many others. Rules in different countries may vary significantly. Motivations The tax law of many countries, including the United States, does normally not tax a sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Congress Joint Committee On Taxation
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) is a Committee of the U.S. Congress established under the Internal Revenue Code at . Structure The Joint Committee is composed of ten Members: five from the Senate Finance Committee and five from the House Ways and Means Committee. The Joint Committee is chaired on a rotating basis by the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. During the first Session of each Congress the House has the joint committee chair and the Senate has the vice-chair; during the second session the roles are reversed. The Members of the Joint Committee choose the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee, who is responsible for selecting the remainder of the staff on a nonpartisan basis. Since May 15, 2009, the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee has been Thomas A. Barthold. Duties The duties of the Joint Committee are: # Investigating the operation, effects, and administration of internal revenue taxes # Investiga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Structured Finance
Structured finance is a sector of finance - specifically financial law - that manages leverage and risk. Strategies may involve legal and corporate restructuring, off balance sheet accounting, or the use of financial instruments. Securitization provides $15.6 trillion in financing and funded more than 50% of U.S. household debt last year. At the end of the day, through securitization and structured finance, more families, individuals, and businesses have access to essential credit, seamlessly and at a lower price. With more than 370 member institutions, the Structured Finance Association (SFA) is the leading trade association for the structured finance industry. SFA’s purpose is to help its members and public policymakers grow credit availability and the real economy in a responsible manner. ISDA conducted market surveys of its Primary Membership to provide a summary of the notional amount outstanding of interest rate, credit, and equity derivatives, until 2010. The ISDMargin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
