The purpose of the “Regulatory Flexibility Act” is to ensure that when making regulations the U.S. Government makes a distinction between large corporations (for example Apple) owned by millions and shareholders and small corporations (for example Joe The Plumber) owned by Joe himself.

The text of “Regulatory Flexibility Act” is here.

The purpose of the “Regulatory Flexibility Act” is to require that

Congressional Findings and Declaration of Purpose

(a) The Congress finds and declares that —

(1) when adopting regulations to protect the health, safety and economic welfare of the Nation, Federal agencies should seek to achieve statutory goals as effectively and efficiently as possible without imposing unnecessary burdens on the public;

(2) laws and regulations designed for application to large scale entities have been applied uniformly to small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions even though the problems that gave rise to government action may not have been caused by those smaller entities;

(3) uniform Federal regulatory and reporting requirements have in numerous instances imposed unnecessary and disproportionately burdensome demands including legal, accounting and consulting costs upon small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions with limited resources;

(4) the failure to recognize differences in the scale and resources of regulated entities has in numerous instances adversely affected competition in the marketplace, discouraged innovation and restricted improvements in productivity;

(5) unnecessary regulations create entry barriers in many industries and discourage potential entrepreneurs from introducing beneficial products and processes;

(6) the practice of treating all regulated businesses, organizations, and governmental jurisdictions as equivalent may lead to inefficient use of regulatory agency resources, enforcement problems and, in some cases, to actions inconsistent with the legislative intent of health, safety, environmental and economic welfare legislation;

(7) alternative regulatory approaches which do not conflict with the stated objectives of applicable statutes may be available which minimize the significant economic impact of rules on small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions;

(8) the process by which Federal regulations are developed and adopted should be reformed to require agencies to solicit the ideas and comments of small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions to examine the impact of proposed and existing rules on such entities, and to review the continued need for existing rules.

(b) It is the purpose of this Act [enacting this chapter and provisions set out as notes under this section] to establish as a principle of regulatory issuance that agencies shall endeavor, consistent with the objectives of the rule and of applicable statutes, to fit regulatory and informational requirements to the scale of the businesses, organizations, and governmental jurisdictions subject to regulation. To achieve this principle, agencies are required to solicit and consider flexible regulatory proposals and to explain the rationale for their actions to assure that such proposals are given serious consideration.

Further detail on the “Regulatory Flexibility Act” – in a “nutshell” – is available here:

RFA_in_a_Nutshell2010

Conclusion: In developing regulations for the Sec. 965 “transition tax” Treasury is required to consider the fact that “Joe The Plumber” is different from Apple. Furthermore, Treasury must consider the fact that “Joe The Plumber” may be a owned by a “U.S. Person who actually lives outside the United States for whom “Joe The Plumber” is actually a local corporation.

Fact: In developing the Sec. 965 regulations Treasury did NOT follow the requirements of the “Regulatory Flexibility” and specifically explained why Treasury did NOT follow those requirements.

Have questions? Contact John Richardson.