Trump and Republicans Debating How Much to Cut Corporate Tax Rate
Since his presidential campaign, Trump has called for a 15-percent corporate tax rate, and White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said Monday that’s still the administration’s goal.
“We’ve proposed 15 percent and we’re trying to work off a 15-percent base, seeing if we can get there, that’s important to us,” Cohn said.
Speaker Paul Ryan proposed a 20 percent corporate rate. And Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said this week that both sides of Congress need to lower the rate “as much as is reasonably possible.”
“When the administration puts out a framework that calls for a 15-percent corporate tax rate while the House Blueprint has a 20-percent rate target, that’s not really a disagreement,” he said in remarks submitted to the Congressional Record on Thursday. “Both sides want to lower the corporate rate significantly, and the general idea in both cases is to reduce the rate as much as is reasonably possible.”
Hatch added that it may be difficult to achieve a 15-percent tax rate, or 20, but it would “be a great thing if we can get it down to 20 percent.”
Representative Mark Meadows, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, also wants to cut the corporate rate to the teens.
“I think that something with a one in front of it, whether it’s 15 or 17 or 18 [percent], that’s where we need to be,” he said Wednesday.
However, currently, the corporate tax rate is 35 percent.
