Overview
Treasury Secretary Lew Says Business Tax Reform Will Make the United States More Competitive: Today, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testified before the Senate Finance Committee. In his written testimony he discussed the Obama Administration’s reform proposals, which he described as “pro-growth business tax reform that protects and strengthens the middle class, lowers rates, simplifies the system, levels the playing field, and eliminates unfair and inefficient loopholes.” He added that, in the area of international tax reform, the Administration is “proposing reforms that would fix the current broken and inefficient system for taxing the foreign income of U.S. multinational corporations.” He stated that the “core” of President Obama’s tax plan is the global minimum tax: “[t]he global minimum tax would ensure that U.S. multinational firms pay at least a 19-percent tax on their foreign earnings as they are earned — rather than deferring the tax for years or forever — while exempting from the minimum tax a return to real activities performed abroad. After this initial payment, foreign earnings could be reinvested in the U.S. without additional tax, which would level the playing field and encourage firms to create jobs here at home.”