Published In
Tax Notes Federal
Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
2026
Subjects
international tax history, international taxation, Origination Clause, treaty-making power, U.S. tax treaties
Abstract
This article examines the origins of the U.S. tax treaty program from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. Drawing on congressional records and previously unexamined Treasury and State Department archives, it argues that the program was shaped to an extraordinary degree by a single Bureau of Internal Revenue official, Eldon P. King. Far from merely administering treaty policy, King effectively created and directed it: he developed legal justifications for treaty negotiations, selected negotiating partners, led negotiations, managed relations with the State Department, and helped secure Senate acceptance of the resulting agreements. The article shows how King transformed the limited treaty-related provisions of the Revenue Act of 1936 into the foundation for a broader treaty program and established precedents through treaties with Sweden, France and Canada. It also reconstructs the recurring constitutional objection to tax treaties, namely that treaties altering tax law circumvented the House of Representatives’ constitutional role in originating revenue measures. Rather than being decisively resolved, this objection was minimized, sidestepped, or treated as a political rather than legal problem. The resulting history suggests that early U.S. tax treaty policy reflected weak institutional oversight and individual initiative more than either international consensus or coherent legislative design.
Citation Details
W. Cui, "Was the Early U.S. Tax Treaty Program a One-Man Show?" Working Paper of (2026) 192 Tax Notes Federal 565-577, 791-805 [reprinted in (2026) 123 Tax Notes Int'l 599-571, 761-775].
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