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WAYS AND MEANS CHAIR RIPS CORPORATE TAX LOBBY

March 28, 2006

Corporate America's pursuit of selfish tax breaks has created a tax quagmire that will resist reform for years. So says outgoing Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas. In a speech to the Tax Executives Institute, Mr. Thomas pulled no punches:

American businesses have spent too much time lobbying for the preservation of narrow tax breaks, and they may have lost the opportunity for overhauling an inefficient U.S. corporate tax code as a result, the House's top tax writer said Monday.

"One of the things I want to talk to you about today is how you blew it," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas told a meeting of the Tax Executives Institute, a group that represents corporate executives who deal with tax-related matters.

In 2004, Mr. Thomas proposed a 2% corporate tax rate cut to replace the Extraterritorial Income Exclusion, which needed to be repealed to stop trade sanctions. Instead a House-Senate conference apoproved the execrable Section 199 "production deduction," which provides a narrow tax break, but a great deal of billable work for tax advisors.

(Via the Tax Policy Blog)

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