890g.5123/2
The Secretary of State to Messrs. Breed, Abbott & Morgan, of New York
Sirs: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of August 3, 192818 in which you request the advice of the Department in the matter of the payment of income tax in Iraq by your clients, a New York corporation having a representative in Basrah.
In reply I desire to inform you that negotiations are now in process between the Governments of the United States, Great Britain and Iraq for the conclusion of a treaty by which it is expected that the treatment to be accorded American nationals in Iraq under British mandate will be determined.19 Meanwhile, however, the Department considers that the collection of taxes from American nationals in Iraq without the consent of this Government is in contravention of American treaty rights.
I may add, however, that should your clients, in view of the imminent conclusion of the treaty referred to above, consider that for reasons of business policy the payment of the taxes in question is desirable, this Government would raise no objection.
[Page 953]A copy of your letter and of this reply have been sent to the American Consul at Baghdad for his information and your clients’ representative may consult with that officer, should he desire, in regard to the matter of payment of the tax if it is demanded.
I am [etc.]
Assistant Secretary
- Not printed.↩
- For previous correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1927, vol. ii, pp. 808 ff.↩