Corporate taxes

Republican tax writers in the House and Senate scoured the U.S. tax code Thursday and shook the couch cushions for loose change, as one member put it, in an all-day struggle to find ways to pay for the deep tax cuts their leaders and President Donald Trump have promised.

A sweeping amendment from the chairman of the House tax writing committee transformed key provisions of the GOP tax overhaul bill to boost the rate applied to companies’ offshore cash, tweak rules for pass-through businesses and restore the adoption credit, ahead of a full House vote that’s expected next week.

The Senate tax bill that’s due to be released Thursday won’t include an excise tax on certain payments U.S. multinationals make to overseas affiliates, according to a person familiar with the legislation.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin isn’t ruling out delaying the start of a corporate tax rate cut, but emphasized the administration’s “strong preference” is for the relief to start in 2018.

The House tax-writing committee entered its third day of work Wednesday to hammer out the details of the Republican tax cut plan. Here are the latest developments, updated throughout the day.

The tax reform bill introduced last week includes major provisions related to the taxation of companies’ foreign income and of foreign persons.

Multinational companies including Apple Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Ford Motor Co. would face a new tax on payments they make to offshore affiliates under the House Republicans’ tax bill—a surprise provision that has stunned tax experts.

House Republicans should slow down their consideration of a tax-overhaul bill after investigative reports Sunday alleged offshore tax-avoidance by U.S. multinational companies including Apple Inc. and Nike Inc., congressional Democrats and tax-advocacy groups said.

The House tax-writing committee begins debate Monday on the GOP’s proposed overhaul, kicking off four frantic days for lobbyists and lawmakers to revise a bill that represents President Donald Trump’s final hope for a signature legislative achievement this year.

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans billed their tax overhaul for months as a benefit primarily for the middle class, but what they delivered Thursday was designed more to favor large corporations and some closely held businesses.

House Republican leaders began rolling out a tax bill Thursday that contains sweeping changes for business and individual taxes, including a measure to cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent.

U.S. companies that have accumulated trillions of dollars of overseas earnings would be taxed on that stockpiled income at a rate as high as 12 percent under the tax-overhaul bill that House Republicans released Thursday.

House Republican leaders plan to unveil a tax bill Thursday that would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent and leave it there—abandoning an earlier plan to phase out the rate cut over time, said a person familiar with discussions on the bill.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is resisting a gradual phase-in of the proposed 20 percent corporate rate out of concern the move wouldn’t boost economic growth as much as he’s anticipated, according to a Trump administration official and another person familiar with Mnuchin’s thinking.

Tax chief Kevin Brady has announced a plan to ‘work through the night’ on the bill.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “some people have mentioned” phasing in a proposed corporate tax-rate cut as part of broad tax-overhaul legislation that’ll be released Wednesday, but “we’re not looking at that.”

House tax writers have completed about 90 percent of the tax bill they plan to release this week, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said Monday—but the last part may be the hardest.

House tax writers are discussing a gradual phase-in for the corporate tax-rate cut that President Donald Trump and Republican leaders want—a schedule that would have the rate reach 20 percent in 2022, according to a member of the chamber’s tax-writing committee and a person familiar with the discussions.

Cutting the corporate tax rate to 20 percent would boost U.S. economic growth by 3 to 5 percent over time, according to an analysis produced by President Donald Trump’s White House.

President Donald Trump sought to rally support for his effort to overhaul the nation’s tax code on Tuesday at a conservative policy group that helped write the plan.