(12:05 p.m. ET. The president's proposal is now out, so we've updated this post.)
Saying that "the current tax code was written for a different economy in a different era. It needs to be reformed and modernized," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner just oulined a proposal from the Obama administration to cut corporate taxes while also eliminating business loopholes.
The proposal, which is posted online here, would reduce the top corporate tax rate from its current 35 percent to 28 percent — and offer incentives that could reduce some businesses' rate to 25 percent if they engage in "advanced manufacturing" in the U.S.
The administration also says its plan would "make tax filing simpler for small businesses and entrepreneurs," and would "not add a dime to the deficit."
Among the so-called loopholes the administration says it wants to close are subsidies for "oil and gas production through tax expenditures that provide preferences for these industries over others."
Our original post:
The Obama administration is today going to propose a cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, according to multiple reports. NPR's Scott Horsley notes that the president also wants to scale back some deductions that businesses now get. So, the overall effect of any such changes could be "revenue neutral" and keep corporations' share of the nation's tax burden unchanged, Scott says.
"With the framework for changes that the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, will outline on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will enter an election-year debate with Republicans in Congress and in the presidential race who seek even lower taxes for businesses. But an overhaul of the corporate code is unlikely this year, given that political backdrop and the complexity of an undertaking that would generate a lobbying frenzy as businesses vie to defend old tax breaks or win new ones."
Speaking of the presidential election, economist/pundit Larry Kudlow writes on his National Review blog that Republican candidate Mitt Romney's team "tells me there will be a bolder tax-cut plan released either at the debate [Wednesday] night ... or more formally at his Detroit Economic Club speech on Friday. I'm embargoed from releasing details until [Wednesday]. But I can say that the new plan will be across-the-board with supply-side incentives from rate reduction, and that it will help small-business owners as well as everyone else."
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