In a concession to the GOP, President Biden offered to keep the Trump 2017 tax cuts to corporations intact during negotiations for a $1 trillion infrastructure deal. Instead there would be work to ensure corporations don’t exploit tax loop holes.
Biden still supports raising the corporate tax rate to cover other parts of his agenda, while the GOP has called it a “red-line” in their negotiations with the White House.
The tweaked proposal would no longer raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, but rely on other funding components of Biden’s American Jobs Plan: beefing up tax enforcement on the country’s wealthiest earnerers and ensuring the largest corporations – some of which have avoided paying any taxes – pay at least a minimum of 15%.
The Washington Post reports that Biden raised the possibility he could take the proposed rate increase off the table in an attempt to broker a compromise, according to a person familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them. The president still intends to seek the tax increase, the source said, meaning the White House could pursue the policy outside of the infrastructure debate — or in the case that bipartisan negotiations ultimately collapse.
Biden’s shift would focus on a new minimum corporate tax rate of 15%.
Biden stressed in his address to Congress last month that it is time to close “tax loopholes,” urging lawmakers to “reform corporate taxes so they pay their fair share and help pay for the public investments their businesses will benefit from as well.”
The concession was proposed on Wednesday’s one hour one-on-one meeting at the White House with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., and Biden said talks will resume on Friday.