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Editorials and Op-eds
June 10, 2013 - Roll Call (Op-ed), "Time for Business Tax Reform," Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Former Director, Congressional Budget Office, and Dr. Laura Tyson, Former Chair, President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers
The U.S. needs comprehensive corporate tax reform that reduces the corporate tax rate, broadens the corporate tax base and modernizes the international corporate tax system. Comprehensive reform should be revenue-neutral, paid for by eliminating corporate tax preferences. ... Moving our antiquated international system of corporate taxation toward a hybrid territorial system would level the global playing field by ensuring that companies compete based on productivity and innovation, rather than differences in home country taxation.
April 26, 2013 - The Hill (Op-ed), "When Being Number One Is a Bad Thing," Walter Galvin, Former Chairman, National Association of Manufacturers' Tax Committee
The current corporate tax structure creates a perverse incentive for American multi-national corporations to keep nearly $2 trillion outside the U.S. due in large part to our 39.1 percent combined tax rate. American companies doing business abroad pay taxes to the nation in which income is earned but then face a second layer of taxes by the U.S. when the remaining money is brought home, with a credit to offset the overseas taxes plus any legal deductions. This sort of tax system leaves little to the imagination as to why companies don't return as much of their profits to America for reinvestment, which could fuel tremendous job growth and economic activity. ... We can take a lesson from nations that are moving toward a territorial tax system and lower corporate tax rates. U.S. tax policy should be even handed and avoid placing government in the position of picking winners and losers.
April 8, 2013 - Wall Street Journal (Op-ed), "Tax Reform Is Very Much Alive and Doable," Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means
While we continue to develop the policies, we've agreed on three fundamental principles to ensure that tax reform grows and expands the economy. ... The second principle is to level the playing field for U.S. employers. The current U.S. corporate tax rate is the highest in the world. Yet in recent years, some of America's largest corporations have paid zero tax. The current system picks winners and losers and puts the U.S. companies at a disadvantage in the global economy, a situation that hurts job creation. Tax reform must make our companies more competitive in the global economy.
March 28, 2013 - Free Enterprise (Op-ed), "The Truth About Corporate Tax Burdens," Caroline Harris, Chief Tax Counsel & Executive Director of Tax Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
[I]f we want to compete in the global economy, to be a place where companies can invest, grow, and create jobs, we need to comprehensively reform our tax code. ... We need lower marginal rates and a shift to a territorial tax system to move us in line with our global competitors. We need proper cost recovery provisions and a simpler code that is easier to comply with. And we need transition rules that help us get from here to there. And, if we really want to help American worldwide companies compete, to attract foreign investment, and to drive economic and job growth, we need that comprehensive tax reform now.
March 25, 2013 - The Daily Caller (Op-ed), "The U.S. Needs a Modern International Tax System," Claire Buchan Parker, Spokeswoman, LIFT America Coalition
Our out-of-step international tax system imposes a toll-like charge that effectively locks out approximately $1.7 trillion in private capital. That’s money that could be spent on research and development, new plants and equipment, and other job-creating activities. Instead, American companies face the prospect of additional taxation when they want to invest foreign earnings here at home. Eliminating this barrier to investment will help U.S. companies compete against foreign companies. And it is American workers who will win if our tax code allows the United States to be the most attractive place in the world to locate a business, invest, and hire.
News Clips
June 13, 2013 - MarketWatch, "Boeing CEO Says Out-of-Date Tax Code Hurts U.S. Economy"
One of the nation’s most prominent CEOs says U.S. corporate tax rates needed to be lower not because American companies are overtaxed but mainly because foreign rivals have an advantage. Jim McNerney, chief executive of Boeing, says the U.S. tax code has fallen behind the times. Many European countries have cut tax rates in the past two decades and developing nations such as China already offer a low-tax environment.
April 2, 2013 - The Hill, "Chamber Offers Tax Reform Wish List"
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave lawmakers an extensive wish list for tax reform on Tuesday, calling for lower rates and less taxation of corporate offshore income. … It also wants to install a so-called territorial system, which would limit U.S. taxation of corporations’ offshore income – an idea shared by top Republicans like Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.). And the Chamber says that the code should be simplified, and should be reformed in a manner that gives businesses more certainty.
March 19, 2013 - Bloomberg BNA, "Business Roundtable Campaign Shoots for Territorial Tax System, Lower Corporate Rates"
The Business Roundtable March 18 unveiled a new national awareness campaign aimed at promoting the benefits of a territorial tax system and reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. According to Roundtable President John Engler, many of the existing corporate tax breaks should be eliminated, and the tax code should be simplified.
March 18, 2013 - The Hill, "CEOs Set Tax Reform Goal: 25 Percent Corporate Rate"
A prominent lobby group for chief executives is launching a campaign to build public support for reducing the corporate rate to 25 percent and limiting the taxation of offshore income. John Engler, the president of Business Roundtable, and other officials at the lobby shop say the campaign’s purpose is to educate the public about America’s outdated tax system and the drag it places on U.S. businesses. ... Roundtable officials are also pressing for a revenue-neutral corporate reform, meaning the rewritten code wouldn’t bring in more or less revenue than it did before, and the adoption of a modified territorial system, which would shield offshore corporate income from taxation.
March 8, 2013 - Bloomberg, "Offshore Cash Hoard Expands by $183 Billion at Companies"
…“The corporate system is broken and it’s broken primarily because of international,” said Edward Kleinbard, a tax law professor at the University of Southern California. …The U.S. operates what is known as a worldwide tax system, which means the country applies its 35 percent corporate tax rate to profits that U.S.-based companies earn around the world. Most other industrialized nations impose minimal taxes, if any, on their companies’ foreign earnings. U.S. companies receive foreign tax credits for payments to other countries, meaning that they can bring home previously taxed earnings with little residual tax owed to the U.S. They also can defer the U.S. tax until they bring the profits home. “If you lowered the corporate tax rate, some of these problems, they don’t go away, but they’re reduced,” said Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
