Republicans Divided Between Tax Reform and Tax Cuts
Posted on Aug 11, 2017 in News
Facing a low presidential approval rating, failed health care reform, and impending midterm elections, the GOP wants to move quickly on tax legislation but is undecided on the actual package to present. Some Republicans support scaling back reform to focus on tax cuts, in the hope of avoiding drawn out negotiations over eliminating tax expenditures and closing loopholes. Other party...
White House Amenable to Bipartisan Tax Reform
Posted on Aug 11, 2017 in News
White House officials, unwilling to repeat the Obamacare repeal failure and keenly aware of intraparty dissidence, have been discussing tax reform with House Democrats. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and chief economic advisor Gary Cohn have been meeting with members of the House’s Blue Dog Coalition and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus to drum up support for reform. While...
Senate Budget Committee Considers Appropriate Baseline Measure
Posted on Aug 8, 2017 in News
Senate Budget Chairman Michael Enzi confirmed that he intends to mark up a fiscal 2018 budget resolution in September. First, however, the Budget Committee will need to agree on how to measure the resolution, using either the current policy baseline or current law baseline. The former method, which reduces projected federal revenue by approximately $460 billion over 10 years, assumes...
Cohn Calls for Sub-23% Corporate Tax Rate
Posted on Aug 7, 2017 in News, Pass-through Taxation
White House economic advisor Gary Cohn stated that the US must reduce the tax rate for corporations and pass-through entities below 23%. He indicated such a rate is necessary to encourage domestic corporations to keep their profits in the US by competing with corporate tax rates offered by most member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). ...
Meadows Cites Thanksgiving Deadline for Tax Reform
Posted on Aug 4, 2017 in News
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, speaking at an Americans for Prosperity event, stated that “if [the tax reform bill] doesn’t get to the president’s desk by Thanksgiving… it isn’t going to happen.” He explained that the timing is imperative in order to retroactively apply tax reform benefits to 2017 and to avoid the legislative slowdown often associated with midterm...
McConnell Confirms Intent to Use Budget Reconciliation to Pass Tax Reform
Posted on Aug 2, 2017 in News
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in response to the Senate Democratic Caucus’s August 1st letter urging bipartisan tax reform, stated that the GOP will need to utilize the reconciliation process to avoid a Senate filibuster. He suggested that the demands set forth by Senate Democrats indicated that they did not share Republican priorities regarding tax reform. However,...
White House Legislative Director Hopes for Bipartisan Support for Tax Reform Bill
Posted on Aug 2, 2017 in News
Legislative Affairs director Marc Short, acknowledging that the reconciliation process leaves little room for error, stated that he is hopeful some Democrats, including members of the Blue Dog Coalition and the Problem Solvers Caucus in the House, as well as red state Democrats in the Senate, will support the passage of a tax reform bill. Short expects that tax reform legislation will...
Senator Hatch Not Optimistic About a Significant Reduction in the Corporate Tax Rate
Posted on Aug 2, 2017 in News
Senator Hatch, Senate Finance Committee chairman, said in an interview that it would be “kind of miraculous” to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, much less President Trump’s goal of 15 percent, and that Republicans will be lucky to get the rate down at all. He also stated that tax reform success may require gaining Democratic support. Read more: U.S. Senator Hatch says 25...
Senate Democrats Call for Bipartisan Tax Reform
Posted on Aug 2, 2017 in News
In a letter to the President and GOP Congressional leaders, the 45 of the 48 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus urged abandonment of the reconciliation process in favor of bipartisan tax reform. The Senate Democrats stated, however, that they would not support a bill that grants tax breaks to the wealthy or that adds to the deficit and thereby jeopardizes critical programs such...
Abandonment of Border Adjustment Tax may lead to Shallower, Shorter Tax Cuts
Posted on Jul 31, 2017 in News
The GOP’s decision to abandon the controversial border adjustment tax (BAT) increases the chances that ensuing tax cuts will be both temporary and shallower than envisioned. Without the BAT’s estimated $1 Trillion in revenue, and with no other plan to raise significant funds, analysts estimate the lowest possible revenue-neutral rate for corporate taxes is about 27%, significantly...
House Ways and Means Committee Democrats Critical of Republicans’ Joint Statement on Tax Reform
Posted on Jul 28, 2017 in News
In response to Congressional Republicans’ and the Trump Administration’s unveiling of their joint statement on taxes, several Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee issued condemnatory press releases: Ranking Member Richard Neal expressed his disappointment over the Republicans’ decision to exclude Democrats from the tax reform process, stating that partisan tax...
GOP to Release Tax Reform Framework
Posted on Jul 27, 2017 in News
The top Republican tax negotiators are expected to unveil a broad set of agreed tax reform principles prior to the Congressional recess. The anticipated framework is the result of ongoing deliberations between the “big six”: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Kevin Brady, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Committee chairman...
President Trump Reiterates His Commitment to Lower Tax Rates on Corporations and Middle-Class Taxpayers
Posted on Jul 26, 2017 in News
In a wide-ranging interview with the Wall Street Journal, President Trump stated that his next priority, after healthcare, was tax reform that lowers corporate rates and reduces the tax burden on middle-class families. While he did not offer any new proposals on lowering individual tax rates, he stated that he was willing to consider taxing wealthier taxpayers more in order to offer a...
Opposition to Border Adjustment Tax Continues
Posted on Jul 26, 2017 in News
Critics, including the House Freedom Caucus and the Koch-brothers-backed Freedom Partners, as well as the retail, oil refining, and auto industry sectors, remain resolute in their position that tax reform legislation should not include a border adjustment tax (BAT). House Speaker Paul Ryan and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady remain the BAT’s strongest supporters, but apprehension...
Business Community Urges Congress to Pass Tax Reform
Posted on Jul 25, 2017 in International Tax, News
Corporate America is encouraging Congress to pass tax reform legislation as quickly as possible. Amid apprehension that tax reform could experience delays similar to those facing other items on the Republican agenda, business leaders have pressed congressional leaders to move forward with a budget resolution to facilitate tax reform. Business groups will launch campaigns during...