Corporate tax rate at 20% needed; GOP Senate has not discussed phasing in: Grassley
Investors got spooked on renewed reports that President Donald Trump’s lower corporate tax rate would be phased in over a number of years on Monday. FOX Business reported the idea earlier this month.
But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), told FOX Business that Republicans have no plans of gradually lowering the corporate tax rate.
“On the Senate side we have not talked about phasing that in. We have talked about starting out with the 20% rate,” Grassley told FOX Business 'Stuart Varney on “Varney and Co.”
Grassley, however, said he is open to a gradual rollout as a last resort if there are ways to off-set within the budget that Senate Republicans approved last week.
“The only way that I’d be in favor of phasing it in is if there's no way you can stay within the $1.5 trillion figure that we have to as a result of the budget resolution,” he said. “We have to fit in with that revenue raisers we have by broadening the tax base compared to what we reduced the rates, both individual and corporate.”
In Grassley’s opinion, “it sends a bad signal” if the GOP doesn’t go with the 20% tax rate.
“Being that the president started out at 15 [percent], we are down to 20 [percent]. You can’t really go below 23 [percent] under any circumstances for the reason that the other 35 industrialized nations, that’s the average, and some are lower and some are going to go lower like the United Kingdom. So if we are going to be competitive we’ve got to stay at 20 [percent],” he said.