House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said his new proposal exempting most overseas corporate profits from being taxed in the U.S. would be revenue-neutral and would give corporations a boost to create jobs.
Speaking on CNBC’s "Squawk Box" Wednesday morning, Camp said his tax reform plan, which will be unveiled later today, would “get the money that’s stranded overseas invested here to create jobs.”
Camp’s plan is expected to exempt 95 percent of foreign profits earned by American corporations from taxation.
“We’re really out of step with the rest of the world,” Camp said. “We have the highest corporate rate in the industrialized world. We're the only country left with this worldwide system, it really penalizes companies that are doing worldwide business.”
“Our proposal is going to be revenue neutral — that's why we're releasing this draft today, so that we can get some feedback and input,” he added. "The whole plan is to do this in a revenue neutral way because it's not about raising taxes, it's about reforming our international taxes ... frankly all of our taxes."
Camp’s plan would move the U.S. closer to a territorial system. Currently, American companies are taxed on profits earned overseas at 35 percent, although businesses can delay paying taxes on those foreign profits until they are repatriated to the U.S.
Camp, who is also a member of the deficit-reduction supercommittee, addressed concerns that the panel will be unable to reach a bipartisan agreement by their Nov. 23 deadline.
The congressman said he would “not really going to go into what the supercommittee is doing,” but added that members were “sincerely trying to find a solution to this debt and deficit problem.”
Camp said that the panel would use all the time available to them before the deadline to craft their deal. “We are all working hard up until Nov. 22 … Nov. 23,” he said.
“There’s no question these are difficult issues,” Camp noted. “I’ll look at everything through the prism of ‘what does this do for job creation?’ ”
Many lawmakers have expressed worries that the committee has not made enough progress as its deadline nears. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday he was "not optimistic," but "hopeful" that members could reach their target of $1.5 trillion in cuts.
