Business groups offer mixed reactions to tax reform bill

WASHINGTON — The tax reform proposal from the House Republican leadership is getting mixed reviews from even tire industry and other business interests, with many groups offering both praise and condemnation depending on the specific provision.

Introduced Nov. 2, H.R. 1 — the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — includes many provisions designed to help business and industry, including:

• A cut in the corporate tax rate to 20 from 35 percent;

• Allowing corporations to repatriate money kept overseas at a tax rate of 12 percent;

• Eliminating taxes on overseas profits; and

• A phaseout of the estate tax — the "death tax" hated by small businesses — with total repeal by Jan. 1, 2024.

The legislation would reduce the number of individual income tax rates from seven to four, at 12, 25, 35 and 39.6 percent. It would increase the standard deduction and the child tax credit, but eliminate deductions for state and local sales taxes, student loans and large medical expenses.

The deduction for state and local property taxes would be capped at $10,000, and the cap on the mortgage interest deduction for new home purchases would be halved, from $1 million to $500,000.

One of the most enthusiastic responses to H.R. 1 was from the American Trucking Associations, which wrote Congress Nov. 3, urging swift passage of the legislation.

"ATA...strongly endorsed the tax reform framework that his administration worked to define with Congress," the association said. "We are pleased to see this framework now embodied in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to the benefit of workers, small businesses and families across the economic spectrum."

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) also said it was pleased with H.R. 1, which it called "a grand slam" for the U.S. economy.

"These tax cuts will make a real and positive difference for middle-class Americans, creating more wealth for higher wages, to reduce the cost of living and to increase savings for retirement and the future," Jay Timmons, NAM President and CEO, said.

Not surprisingly, the United Steelworkers union — along with its parent organization, the AFL-CIO — took the opposite view.

“This bill is a job killer,” the AFL-CIO said in a statement. “The GOP tax bill would give companies a huge tax break for outsourcing.”

A $1.5 trillion cut in Medicaid and Medicare would only partially pay for the tax cuts proposed in H.R. 1, the union said.

“But the GOP tax bill still won't be paid for, so we can expect Republicans to demand more budget cuts that hurt working people in the future,” it said.

However, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said it could not support the tax reform package in its current form.

The NFIB's specific concern was the bill's provisions for "pass-through" businesses — businesses that are taxed through individual owners rather than at the corporate level.

H.R. 1 would cap the pass-through tax rate at 25 percent, well below the current rate of 39.6 percent. However, the bill also contains provisions to discourage individuals from establishing themselves as small businesses to take advantage of the 25-percent rate. The NFIB said those provisions prevent legitimate small businesses from claiming that rate.

"This bill leaves too many small businesses behind," NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan said Nov. 2.

"Small business is the engine of the economy," she said. "We believe that tax reform should provide substantial relief to all small businesses, so they can reinvest their money, grow, and create jobs."

In the Nov. 6 issue of its Weekly Legislative Update, the Tire Industry Association (TIA) said it was still working through the text of the legislation.

TIA said it liked a good deal about the bill, such as estate tax repeal and continued interest deductions for small businesses. However, the association said it was concerned about other provisions, such as the pass-through provisions.

TIA was particularly concerned about the bill's provision repealing the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), which takes effect Jan. 1.

The WOTC allows businesses to deduct a portion of the first-year wages of employees hired from populations the federal government defines as underprivileged. TIA is a longtime supporter of the WOTC

TIA urged its members to email their congressional contacts to have the WOTC repeal provision removed from the bill. It included in the update a model letter TIA members could use as a guide.

"(WOTC repeal) is a sad and unwise blow to America's families in deepest poverty," the letter read.

The WOTC became law under the Reagan administration, and Congress includes unemployed veterans and people with disabilities as WOTC target groups, according to the letter.

"With 1.6 million jobs a year, capped at an average cost of $1,560 a year, WOTC is the only federal program of a scale sufficient to deal with the scope of the problem in a cost-effective way," it said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) said its members are reviewing H.R. 1, but so far they have not found any issues of universal concern in the legislation.

The House Ways and Means Committee began markup of H.R. 1 Nov. 6. At press time, the Senate Finance Committee was scheduled to issue its version of tax reform Nov. 9.