Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- USA: nochmal $120 Mrd Steuererleichterungen für Unternehmen - kingsolomon, 26.07.2003, 00:15
USA: nochmal $120 Mrd Steuererleichterungen für Unternehmen
-->U.S. Lawmaker Thomas Proposes $120 Billion Corporate Tax Cut
July 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas proposed a $120 billion tax cut for corporations over the next decade and the scrapping of an export subsidy that the World Trade Organization has ruled illegal.
The WTO said last year the U.S. must end the subsidy or face $4 billion in European Union sanctions, in what would be the biggest penalty in a trade dispute. The subsidy saves companies such as Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. $5 billion a year.
Thomas has used the WTO case as a springboard to carry out what would be the largest overhaul of U.S. international tax law since 1986. It would also cut Treasury receipts at a time when the budget deficit is set to rise to a record $455 billion this year.
''The WTO decision focused our attention,'' he told a news conference today in Washington. ''But this is a problem we've been looking at for years.''
Thomas, who said he hopes to get the House to pass his legislation before the end of the year, garnered an endorsement from 176 companies, including Citigroup Inc. and Coca-Cola Co.
He faces opposition by Representative Charles Rangel, the top Democrat on the committee, and Philip Crane, a Republican who heads the trade subcommittee. They have introduced competing legislation that would aid manufacturers who mainly produce in the U.S.
The bill from Thomas, Congress's top tax writer, will provide both $100 billion in tax cuts for U.S. manufacturers while simplifying the way companies are taxed on overseas profits.
Year-End Deadline
While repealing the export subsidy would save the Treasury $50 billion over the next decade, Thomas's legislation will reduce receipts by $170 billion because of the tax new tax reductions.
Congress has until the end of this year to repeal the Extraterritorial Income Exclusion, the latest version of an export incentive that was started in the Nixon administration. Otherwise, the European Union has said it will levy $4 billion in retaliatory tariffs against U.S. farm goods, jewelry and other products.
The WTO, a Geneva-based trade arbiter, in January 2002 supported the European Union's claim that the break is an unfair subsidy.
''Repealing (the export subsidy) is going to be a big hit for us,'' said Chuck Hahn, tax director at Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, which exports $3.7 billion worth of goods a year. ''But long-term (Thomas's bill) is probably more important for us, because we need to be internationally competitive.''
Second-Highest Taxes
U.S. corporate taxes are the second highest in the industrial world after Japan, according to a study by KPMG LLP, which advises companies on strategies to lower their taxes.
Rangel and Crane introduced their bill in April that calls for replacing the export tax benefit with a tax cut of as much as 3.5 percentage points for all U.S.-based manufacturers.
Without that change, Chicago-based Boeing says it will have to shed 9,600 jobs because of losses in competitiveness. The company has saved $708 million on its tax bill over the past three years as a result of the export tax break.
The measure has picked up the support of 135 cosponsors in the House.
''For any bill to be approved by both Houses of Congress, it must be broadly bipartisan and revenue neutral,'' Crane and Rangel said in a statement today. Thomas's bill ''fails that test.''
Simplify Taxes
Thomas's legislation would simplify how companies are taxed on overseas profits.
Included in the bill are measures to cut the top tax rate on companies with income under $10 million by as much as 3 percentage points, extend tax credits for research and development, end provisions that force companies to pay taxes twice on foreign income and add a tax holiday to get companies to send earnings back to the U.S.
The legislation also has incentives and penalties to try to prevent U.S. companies from moving their headquarters offshore to low-tax locales such as Bermuda.
The U.S. Treasury's top tax official, Pamela Olson, has said the Bush administration supports such an overhaul of international tax rules. ''Our tax code has not kept pace with changes to the global economy,'' she told a Senate panel earlier this month.
Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a similar overhaul proposal today. His bill would offer companies a $200 billion tax break.
''We'll have to see how much of this we can get enacted this year,'' Hatch said, acknowledging that his entire proposal is unlikely to become law because of the cost to the Treasury.
Last Updated: July 25, 2003 16:08 EDT
Thread gesperrtgesamter Thread:
