Business Tax Reform - New Reports

In the past few months, at least 3 reports on corporate tax reform have been issued:

1. Congressional Research Service (CRS), Corporate Tax Reform: Issues for Congress (10/31/07), 39 pages
This report focuses on calls for lowering the corporate income tax rate, which some label as the 2nd highest rate (combined federal and state) among industrialized countries. It also analyzes Congressman Rangel's "mother of all reforms" (H.R. 3970) which proposes to broaden the corporate base and lower the tax rate to 30.5%.

2. U.S. Department of Treasury, Approaches to Improve the Competitiveness of the U.S. Business Tax System for the 21st Century (12/20/07), 121 pages.
This report provides some background on U.S. business taxation and compares it to other countries. It then lays out three possibiltiies for reform: (a) a business activity tax (BAT) which is a type of consumption tax, (b) a broadened income tax base and a lower tax rate including contrasting a lower rate with faster asset writeoffs and moving to a territorial system, and (c) reforming various aspects of the current system such as its preference for debt over equity.

See:

• Asst Secretary Eric Solomon's statement about the report.
• Treasury summary of the report.

3. OECD, Fundamental Reform of Corporate Income Tax (11/16/07), 131 pages

This report covers trends in corporate income tax, the reasons for a corporate income tax, types of corporate taxes, why countries are considering reforms, and types of reforms.

• OECD's Executive Summary

Additional corporate tax reform reports and proposals related to the above:

1. Rangel's H.R. 3970 - summary, text, prior blog post
2. Treasury's report and forum on Business Taxation and Global Competitiveness
3. The Future of the Corporate Income Tax, by Nellen, 10/07
4. Many links (and reports) on fundamental tax reform (web)

More later (I'm still reading the reports!)