Chief executives push for tax reform

By Bernie Becker - 12/06/12 01:02 PM ET

A group of corporate chief executives is calling on Washington to use the "fiscal cliff" as a springboard to a corporate tax overhaul next year.

The RATE Coalition — Reforming America’s Taxes Equitably — said in a Thursday letter to top congressional tax writers that a tax reform that lowers corporate rates is one of the areas that Democrats and Republicans have agreed on.

Seventeen chief executives in all, representing companies from Altria to Walt Disney, told lawmakers that policymakers needed to update the code to help businesses keep up with a world that had changed in the quarter-century since Washington last completed tax reform.

“Since the 1986 reforms were enacted, our trading partners have raced to reform their tax codes and lower their rates to grow their own economies,” the chief executives wrote.

“It is time for the U.S. to follow our own precedent and again work to pass reforms that will encourage investment here at home. If done properly, a lower corporate tax rate will benefit all U.S. businesses, as well as U.S. workers, and will encourage investment and job creation.”

The RATE Coalition, which represents many corporations with higher effective tax rates than other businesses, has long said that its main goal is to reduce the top corporate rate from its current 35 percent.

In its most recent letter, the coalition reiterated that it is willing to put tax credits and deductions on the table to achieve that goal, and said that the current lame-duck session of Congress should be used to "set the stage for reforms in early 2013."

"Together, we can work to restore America’s global competitiveness and boost economic growth," the CEOs wrote.

President Obama and the most recent GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, have both called for lowering the corporate rate, a goal also shared by top lawmaker in both parties.

With the fiscal cliff of tax increases and spending cuts looming, a full rewrite of the tax code would almost certainly have to be pushed back into 2013.

The chief executives' letter was sent to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee — Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) — and at House Ways and Means — Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.).