ITI to push for updates to corporate tax system, high-skilled immigration reform in 2013

The Information Technology Industry Council plans to push Congress this year on modernizing the country's corporate tax system and passing high-skilled immigration reform, among other policy items.

The trade association, which represents tech heavyweights such as Google and Apple, laid out its policy agenda for 2013 in a blog post on Wednesday.

Robert Hoffman, senior vice president of government affairs at ITI, argued in the blog post that updating the corporate tax system is key to spurring economic growth in the United States and creating new businesses and jobs. Passing tax reform is the trade association's top legislative priority for the year. 

"Our key priorities will be to adopt a competitive market-based/territorial system, reduce the corporate tax rate and establish permanent investment incentives, including the research and development tax credit," Hoffman said.

In the "fiscal-cliff" deal approved by Congress last week, the R&D tax credit was retroactively extended until the end of 2013. It had expired at the end of 2011.

Tech companies have long lobbied for Congress to make the tax credit permanent, but have yet to succeed in accomplishing that goal.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are gearing up for what's expected to be a long battle over immigration reform this year. Both parties have long supported passing high-skilled immigration reform to keep immigrants with advanced degrees in math, engineering and science from U.S. universities in the country, but past bills have been caught up in the larger fight for comprehensive immigration reform.

In the blog post, Hoffman said that enacting high-skilled immigration reform is needed to encourage talented entrepreneurs to build their businesses in the U.S.

"Reforms in our high-skilled immigration system will help fill the tens of thousands of skilled jobs currently available, as well as create new jobs through business startups and expansion," he said. 

— This post was updated at 1:39 p.m.