Good Work, Mike Thompson!

Congressman Mike Thompson, who represents most of us in Woodland in the U.S. House of Representatives, authored an amendment that was adopted by the House Ways & Means Committee on Wednesday, which would update the Foreigh Investment in Real Property Tax Act, a tax law which was enacted before the current plague of identity theft.

Currently, the Act places sales of property under more scrutiny if the seller is from overseas, to ensure that sellers pay all appropriate taxes. U.S. sellers can avoid the additional scrutiny by providing the buyer with the sellers' social security numbers or taxpayer ID numbers. Because identify theft has become such a scourge across the country, many sellers are reluctant to give that information, causing deals to fall apart or causing buyers to assume liability if the property seller fails to pay certain taxes.

Thompson's amendment would,if enacted by Congress as part of the Taxpaper Protection Act (HR 1677), change the tax code to allow sellers of property to provide his or her tax ID number to a trusted third party, like an escrow company, thereby protecting the seller's identity and not placing the buyer at risk of being billed for the seller's tax liability. Thompson was quoted on Wednesday, following the Ways & Means vote, as saying, "Privacy has become a growing concern for people involved in real estate transactions. The current law gives too many people access to sellers' personal information. This change makes sure that information is protected."

Thank you, Mike Thompson. It is this kind of attention to detail that makes me proud to have you as my representative in the House. Keep up the good work!

Molly Two