Statement of the FACT Coalition on the “Joint Statement on Tax Reform”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of Administration and Congressional leaders known as the “Big Six” released a joint statement outlining their priorities for reforming the tax code Thursday. The statement, signed by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), indicated that the controversial provision known as the “border adjustment tax” has been nixed from negotiations.
Clark Gascoigne, the deputy director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition), issued the following statement:
“With the ‘Big Six’ announcing the death of the controversial ‘border adjustment tax,’ Congress and the administration should pivot to proposing international tax policies that live up to their rhetoric. The best way to create ‘a system that encourages American companies to bring back jobs and profits trapped overseas’ is to ensure that multinational companies immediately pay the same rate on the profits they book offshore as domestic companies do on their local profits. Pivoting to this policy will raise over a trillion dollars within the budget window, while ending the incentive for them to shift jobs and profits offshore. For the Trump administration, this would not be a significant shift, considering that then candidate Trump called for such a policy in his first campaign tax plan. In contrast, moving to a ‘territorial’ tax system, as many lawmakers have proposed, would just encourage companies to shift more profits and real jobs offshore.”
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Notes to Editors:
- Read the “Joint Statement on Tax Reform”
- Read the FACT Coalition’s briefing memo on tax reform.
- Read ITEP’s report detailing the issues with the border adjustment tax.
- Read a new article from CBPP on how a so-called “territorial” tax system could hurt U.S. workers.
Journalist Contact:
Clark Gascoigne
Deputy Director, The FACT Coalition
+1 202 827-6401
cgascoigne@thefactcoalition.org