Republicans push back on tax projections

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are continuing to push back on a nonpartisan analysis that sowed doubt about their proposal for revenue-neutral tax reform.

Committee Chairman Dave Camp (Mich.) and other Republicans have proposed reducing the top corporate and individual rates from 35 percent to 25 percent while also eliminating tax breaks.

But the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s revenue analyst, said in a report this week that eliminating a slew of tax credits and deductions would only pay to reduce the corporate rate to 28 percent.                                                                                                                                                     
JCT looked into the issue at the request of Democrats, and Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of Ways and Means, wondered in a Wednesday news release whether Republicans would try to make up the difference on the backs of small businesses or individuals.

On Friday, Ways and Means posted on its website the fact that JCT Chief of Staff Thomas Barthold had noted that the joint committee’s analysis was preliminary and that it had not estimated all the provisions in the corporate code.

Ways and Means also noted that JCT had not considered, among other provisions, the tax break for corporate jet owners that Democrats and Republicans sparred over during the summer’s debt-ceiling negotiations.

“Bringing our corporate rate down to a more competitive 25 percent as part of comprehensive tax reform remains the goal,” Camp said. “The preliminary and partial report from JCT shows we can get there.”

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