Rangel proposes corporate tax cut
I’m stunned – absolutely stunned. Charlie Rangel is proposing a 35% corporate tax cut that will replace the Democrat teddy bear tax break to induce companies to keep their business in the US according to Sarah Lueck in the Wall Street Journal;
Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has drafted legislation that would trim the 35% companies now pay to between 30% and 31%, according to people familiar with the bill. The change would be funded in part by eliminating an existing tax deduction for manufacturers aimed at keeping production in the U.S.
Imagine – a Democrat that sees value in reducing corporate taxes. I never thought I’d see the day.
Now, companies will have to weigh the impact of the rate cut against the other changes the legislation will include. Manufacturing companies, for example, would lose a deduction for domestic production that now reduces their tax rate on manufacturing income to 32%. But the lower corporate tax rate would be attractive and would apply to all income.
Mr. Rangel’s corporate proposal is similar to an idea floated in a Treasury Department report released in July. The report suggested that getting rid of many of the tax preferences now available to corporations — including the manufacturing deduction — would generate enough revenue to reduce the corporate tax rate to 27%.
I will admit that Rangel is indeed stalwart on fairer taxation (as opposed to his whackier social programs and his military draft ideas) – he’s been promising a revision of the Alternative Minimum Tax for years, though and I’d prefer he work on that before he gets a corporate tax cut.
Lueck predicts in her article that Rangel will be the only sponsor of his corporate tax cut – I can’t see Pelosi standing beside him and advocating lower taxes for evil corporations and ending the outsourcing tax incentive. I suspect Pelosi’d explode before she does anything like that to her base.
