House Ways and Means Hearing

Long before President Trump was elected in November, the House Ways and Means committee quietly put together a plan to modernize our tax system. It was published June 24 of 2016 and is known as “A Better Way: Our Vision for a Confident America”, which is available online for review.

Congress held a hearing on May 18, 2017 regarding the current state of the economy and its future.

John Stevens of AT&T stated, “We no longer live in a world where the U.S. can set a corporate tax rate without considering what our international competition looks like. Countries are vigorously competing against each other to attract investment and jobs, but the U.S. has done little to retain its competitive advantage. When tax reform was passed in 1986, we were competitive with other OECD countries, but over the last 30 years, tax rates in other countries have moved from about 35% to about 20%. This puts the U.S. at a real disadvantage. We thereby have saddled our economy with the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, which is exacerbated by our system that taxes companies in the U.S. on their worldwide income.[i] “.

While we are in a good spot currently, better can be achieved. The solution may not be anything any of our leaders discussed. The solution may be to keep going as we have been and face the double edged sword of growth on one side and debt on the other. In any event, we will see some changes in our tax code. We see changes to tax everyday with Tax Court opinions at a rate of about 3-5 per day. Keeping up is a task, and that is what we are here for. The Center routinely advises on these matters and does business valuations and business succession as well. If you need one, please give us a call at 618 997-3436.

[i] Tax Foundation, “The U.S. Has the Highest Corporate Income Tax Rate in the OECD,” January 27, 2014