Treasury Department Publishes List of Countries That May Require Participation With an International Boycott

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today published in the Federal Register the list of list of countries that may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott, as defined by section 999(b)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

Treasury has advised that the following nine countries may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott:

1. Iraq
2. Kuwait
3. Lebanon
4. Libya
5. Qatar
6. Saudi Arabia
7. Syria
8. United Arab Emirates
9. Yemen 

Iraq was added to this list in August 2012.

This list of countries is used for IRS boycott reporting purposes. U.S. law requires companies to report “operations in or relating to a boycotting country” on IRS Form 5713 submitted with corporate tax returns.

This list is not applicable to the antiboycott provisions in Part 760 of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) that are administered and enforced by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

The EAR requires that all reportable boycott requests relating to unsanctioned foreign boycotts be reported to BIS on a quarterly basis. Such requests can come from the countries listed above and others, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Malaysia.