The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
International Organizations Immunities Act, December 9, 1945
AN ACT To extend certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities to
international organizations and to the officers and employees
thereof, and for other purposes
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
TITLE I
SECTION 1.
For the purposes of this title, the term
"international organization" means a public international organization
in which the United States participates pursuant to any treaty or under
the authority of any Act of Congress authorizing such participation or
making an appropriation for such participation, and which shall have
been designated by the President through appropriate Executive order as
being entitled to enjoy the privileges, exemptions, and immunities
herein provided. The President shall be authorized, in the light of the
functions performed by any such international organization, by
appropriate Executive order to withhold or withdraw from any such
organization or its officers or employees any of the privileges,
exemptions, and immunities provided for in this title (including the
amendments made by this title) or to condition or limit the enjoyment by
any such organization or its officers or employees of any such
privilege, exemption, or immunity. The President shall be authorized, if
in his judgment such action should be justified by reason of the abuse
by fin international organization or its officers and employees of the
privileges, exemptions, and immunities herein provided or for any other
reason, at any time to revoke the designation of any international
organization under this section, whereupon the international
organization in question shall cease to be classed as an international
organization for the purposes of this title.
SEC. 2.
International organizations shall enjoy the status, immunities,
exemptions, and privileges set forth in this section, as follows:
(a) International organizations shall, to the extent consistent with
the instrument creating them, possess the capacity-
(i) to contract;
(ii) to acquire and dispose of real and personal property; (iii) to
institute legal proceedings.
(b) International organizations, their property and their assets,
wherever located, and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy the same
immunity from suit and every form of judicial process as is enjoyed
by foreign governments, except to the extent that such organizations
may expressly waive their immunity for the purpose of any
proceedings or by the terms of any contract.
(c) Property and assets of international organizations, wherever
located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless
such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The
archives of international organizations shall be inviolable.
(d) Insofar as concerns customs duties and internal-revenue taxes
imposed upon or by reason of importation, and the procedures in
connection therewith; the registration of foreign agents; and the
treatment of official communications, the privileges, exemptions,
and immunities to which international organizations shall be
entitled shall be those accorded under similar circumstances to
foreign governments.
SEC. 3.
Pursuant to regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of Customs
with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, the baggage and
effects of alien officers and employees of international organizations,
or of aliens designated by foreign governments to serve as their
representatives in or to such organizations, or of the families, suites,
and servants of such officers, employees, or representatives shall be
admitted (when imported in connection with the arrival of the owner)
free of customs duties and free of internal-revenue taxes imposed upon
or by reason of importation.
SEC. 4.
The Internal Revenue Code is hereby amended as follows:
(a) Effective with respect to taxable years beginning after December
31, 1943, section 116 (c), relating to the exclusion from gross
income of income of foreign governments, is amended to read as
follows:
"(C) INCOME OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND OF INTERNATIONAL,
ORGANIZATIONS.-The income of foreign governments or international
organizations received from investments in the United States in
stocks, bonds, or other domestic securities, owned by such foreign
governments or by international organizations, or from interest on
deposits, in banks in the United States of moneys belonging to such
foreign. governments or international organizations, or from any
other source within the United States."
(b) Effective with respect to taxable years beginning after December
31, 1943, section 116 (h) (1), relating to the exclusion from gross
income of amounts paid employees of foreign governments, is amended
to read as follows:
"(1) RULE, FOR EXCLUSION.-Wages, fees, or salary of any employee of
a foreign government or of an international organization or of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines (including a consular or other
officer, or a non-diplomatic representative), received as
compensation for official services to such government,.
international organization, or such Commonwealth-
" (A) If such employee is not, a citizen of the United States, or is
a citizen of the Commonwealth of the Philippines (whether or not a
citizen of the United States); and
" (B) If, in the ease of an employee of a foreign government or of
the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the services are of a character
similar to those performed by employees of the Government of the
United States in foreign countries or in the Commonwealth of the
Philippines, as the case may be; and
" (C) If, in the case of an employee of a foreign government or the
Commonwealth of the Philippines, the foreign government or the
Commonwealth grants an equivalent exemption to employees of the,
Government of the United States performing similar services in such
foreign country or such Commonwealth, as the case may be."
(e) Effective January 1, 1946, section 1426 (b), defining the term
"emploviiient" for the purposes of the Federal Insurance
Contributions Act, is amended (1) by striking out the word "or" at
the end of paragraph (14), (2) by striking out the period at the end
of paragraph (15) and inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon and the
word "or", and (3) by inserting at the end of the subsection the
following new paragraph:
(16) Service performed in the employ of an international
organization."
(d) Effective January 1, 1946, section 1607 (c), defining the term
"employment" for the purposes of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act,
is amended (1) by striking out the word "or" at the end of paragraph
(14), (2) by striking out the period at the end of paragraph (15)
and inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon and the word "or", and (3)
by inserting at the end of the subsection the following new
paragraph:
" (16) Service performed in the employ of an international
organization."
(e) Section 1621 (a) (5), relating to the definition of "wages" for
the purpose of collection of income tax at the source, is amended by
inserting after the words "foreign government" the words "or an
international organization".
(f) Section 3466 (a), relating to exemption from communications
taxes is amended by inserting immediately after the words "the
District of Columbia" a comma and the words "or an international
organization".
(g) Section 3469 (f) (1), relating to exemption from the tax on
transportation of persons ., is amended by inserting immediately
after the words "the District of Columbia" a comma and the words "or
an international organization".
(h) Section 3475 (b) (1), relating to exemption from the tax on
transportation of property, is amended by inserting immediately
after the words "the District of Columbia" a comma and the words "or
an international organization".
(i) Section 3797 (a), relating to definitions, is amended by adding
at the end thereof a new paragraph as follows:
(18) INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION.-The term 'international
organization' means a public International organization entitled to
enjoy privileges, exemptions, and immunities as an international
organization under the International Organizations Immunities Act."
SEC. 5.
(a) Effective January 1, 1946, section 209 (b) of the Social
Security Act, defining the term "employment" for the purposes of title
11 of the Act, is amended (1) by striking out the word "or" at the end
of paragraph (14), (2) by striking out the period at the end of
paragraph (15) and insertiDg in lieu thereof a semicolon and the word
"or", and (3) by inserting at the end of the subsection the following
new paragraph:
" (16) Service performed in the employ of an international
organization entitled to enjoy privileges, exemptions, and
immunities as an international organization under the International
Organizations Immunities Act."
(b) No tax sliall be collected under title VIII or IX of the Social
Security Act or under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act or the
Federal Unemployment Tax Act, with respect to services rendered
prior to January 1., 1946, which are described in paragraph (16) of
sections 1426 (6) and 1607 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code, as
amended, and any such tax heretofore collected (including penalty
and interest with respect thereto, if any) shall be refunded in
accordance with the provisions of law applicable in the case of
erroneous or illegal collection of the tax. No interest shall be
allowed or paid on the amount of any such refund. No payment shall
be made under title 11 of the Social Security Act with respect to
services rendered prior to January 1, 1946, which are described in
paragraph (16) of section 209 (b) of such Act, as amended.
SEC. 6.
International organizations shall be exempt from all property taxes
imposed by, or under the authority of, any Act of Congress, including
such Acts as are applicable solely to the District of Columbia or the
Territories.
SEC. 7.
(a) Persons designated by foreign governments to serve as their
representatives in or to international organizations and the officers
and employees of such organizations, and members of the immediate
families of such representatives, officers, and employees residing with
them, other than nationals of the United States, shall, insofar as
concerns laws regulating entry into and departure from the United
States, alien registration and fingerprinting, and the registration of
foreign agents, be entitled to the same privileges, exemptions, and
immunities as are accorded under similar circumstances to officers and
employees, respectively, of foreign governments, and members of their
families.
(b) Representatives of foreign governments in or to international
organizations and officers and employees of such organizations shall
be immune from suit and legal process relating to acts performed by
them in their official capacity and falling within their functions
as such representatives, officers, or employees except insofar as
such immunity may be waived by the foreign government or
international organization concerned.
(c) Section 3 of the Immigration Act approved May 26, 1924, as
amended (U. S. C., title 8, sec. 203), is hereby amended by striking
out the period at the end thereof and inserting in lieu thereof a
comma and the following: "and (7) a representative of a foreign
government in or to an international organization entitled to enjoy
privileges, exemptions, and immunities as an international
organization under the International Organizations Immunities Act,
or an alien officer or employee of such an international
organization, and the family, attendants, servants, and employees of
such a representative, officer, or employee".
(d) Section 15 of the Immigration Act approved May 26, 1924, as
amended (U. S. C., title 8, see. 215), is hereby amended to read as
follows:
"SEC. 15. The admission to the United States of an alien
excepted from the class of immigrants by clause (1), (2), (3), (4),
(5), (6), or (7) of section 3, or declared to be a non-quota
immigrant by subdivision (e) of section 4, shall be for such time
and under such conditions as may be by regulations prescribed
(including, when deemed necessary for the classes mentioned in
clause (2), (3), (4), or (6) of section 3 and subdivision (e) of
section 4, the giving of bond with sufficient surety, in such sum
and containing such conditions as may be by regulati6ns prescribed)
to insure that, at the expiration of such time or upon failure to
maintain the status under which admitted, he will depart from the
United States: Provided, That no alien who has been, or who may
hereafter be, admitted into the United States under clause (1) or
(7) of section 3, as an official of a foreign government, or as a
member of the family of such official, or as a representative of a
foreign government in or to an international organization or an
officer or employee of an international organization, or as a member
of the family of such representative, officer, or employee, shall be
required to depart from the United States without the approval of
the Secretary of State."
SEC. 8.
(a) No person shall be entitled to the benefits of this title unless
he (1) shall have been duly notified to and accepted by the. Secretary
of State as a representative, officer, or employee; or (2) shall have
been designated by the Secretary of State, prior to formal notification
and acceptance, as a prospective representative, officer, or employee;
or (3) is a member of the family or suite, or servant, of one of the
foregoing accepted or designated representatives, officers, or
employees.
(b) Should the Secretary of State determine that the continued
presence in the United States of any person entitled to the benefits
of this title is not desirable, he shall so inform the foreign
government or international organization concerned, as the case may
be, and after such person shall have had a reasonable length of
time, to be determined by the Secretary of State, to depart from the
United States, he shall cease to be entitled to such benefits.
(e) No person shall, by reason of the provisions of this title, be
considered as receiving diplomatic status or as receiving any of the
privileges incident thereto other than such as are specifically set
forth herein.
SEC. 9.
The privileges, exemptions, and immunities of international
organizations and of their officers and employees, and members of their
families, suites, and servants, provided for in this title, shall be
granted notwithstanding the fact that the similar privileges,
exemptions, and immunities granted to a foreign government, its
officers, or employees, may be conditioned upon the existence of
reciprocity by that foreign government: Provided, That nothing contained
in this title shall be construed as precluding the Secretary of State
from withdrawing the privileges, exemptions, and immunities herein
provided from persons who are nationals of any foreign country on the
ground that such country is failing to accord corresponding privileges,
exemptions, and immunities to citizens of the United States.
SEC. 10.
This title may be cited as the "International Organizations
Immunities Act".
TITLE II
SEC. 201.
EXTENSION OF TIME FOR CLAIMING CREDIT OR
REFUND WITH RESPECT TO WAR LOSSES.
If a claim for credit or refund under the internal revenue laws
relates to an overpayment on account of the deductibility by the
taxpayer of a loss in respect of property considered destroyed or
seized under section 127 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code (relating
to war losses) for a taxable year beginning in 1941 or 1942, the
three-year period of limitation prescribed in section 322 (b) (1) of
the Internal Revenue Code shall in no event expire prior to December
31, 1946. In the case of such a claim filed on or before December
31, 1946, the amount of the credit or refund may exceed the portion
of the tax paid within the period provided in section 322 (b) (2) or
(3) of such code, whichever is applicable, to the extent of the
amount of the overpayment attributable to the deductibility of the
loss described in this section.
Sec.. 202.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PENSION TRUSTS.
(a) DEDUCTIONS FOR THE TAXABLE YEAR 1942 UNDER PRIOR INCOME TAX
ACTS.-Section 23 (p) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code is amended by
striking out the words "January 1, 1943" and inserting in lieu
thereof "January 1, 1942", and by striking out the words "December
31, 1942" and inserting in lieu thereof "December 31, 1941".
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.-The amendment made by this section shall be
applicable as if it had been made as a part of section 162 (b) of
the Revenue Act of 1942.
SEC. 203. PETITION TO THE TAXCOURT OF THE UNITED STATES
(a) TIME FOR FILING PETITION.-The second sentences of sections 272
(a) (1), 7032 (a), 871 (a) (1), and 1012 (a) (1), respectively, of
the Internal Revenue Code are amended by striking out the
parenthetical expression appearing therein and inserting in lieu
thereof the following: "(not counting Saturday, Sunday, or a legal
holiday in the District of Columbia as the ninetieth day)".
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.-The amendments made by this section shall take
effect as of September 8, 1945.
Approved December 29, 1945
