Harris Calls For 28% U.S. Corporate Tax Rate

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, continued to roll out her economic agenda this week by proposing to raise the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28%.

NBC News reported on Monday:

Harris campaign spokesman James Singer told NBC News that she would push for a 28% corporate tax rate, calling it “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share.”

“As President, Kamala Harris will focus on creating an opportunity economy for the middle class that advances their economic security, stability, and dignity,” Singer wrote in an email.

If enacted, the policy would raise hundreds of billions of dollars, as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that 1 percentage point increases in the corporate rate corresponds to about $100 billion over a decade.

Although lower than what Harris proposed during her unsuccessful presidential bid four years ago, a 28% corporate tax rate is in line with the budget the Biden administration proposed in March, Quartz reported.

The Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to its current 21%—a move that was praised by CEOs across the board, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. The act is set to expire in 2025.

During a meeting with CEOs of the biggest U.S. companies in June, former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promised to cut the corporate tax rate to 20%. He also vowed to make the cuts in his signature tax legislation permanent and to renew tax breaks for individuals and small businesses.

Last week, Harris unveiled a set of economic policy proposals, highlighted by a plan to give new parents a $6,000 child tax credit. It also would bring back a child tax credit from the 2021 reconciliation law and expand earned income tax credits for many taxpayers without children.

Harris is expected to be officially nominated as the Democrats’ choice for president during the party’s national convention in Chicago this week.

With Tribune News Wire Services