Biden economic adviser pushes global corporate tax minimum to counteract proposed US increase
Opponents say Biden's plan will hurt US competitiveness
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Council of Economic Advisers chair Cecilia Rouse pushed for a "global minimum tax" on corporations to counteract President Biden's proposed corporate tax rate hike.
"The idea is to make sure that corporations are paying their fair share, to button up some of the loopholes, which have meant more corporations were actually putting more money offshore – off of U.S. soil – and having a global minimum tax so that we’re working with the rest of our trading partners, so that we’re working with the rest of the world so that corporations are paying their fair share worldwide," Rouse told "Fox News Sunday."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"President Biden is really saying, 'Look, everybody should pay their fair share,'" she said. "Yes, internationally we don't want to be disadvantaged, so he's also working with other countries so that we have a minimum tax internationally so there's not a race to the bottom."
The American Jobs Plan, the $2.3 trillion spending plan that Biden introduced at the beginning of April, would raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, reversing a key part of Republicans' 2017 tax law. The measure would also impose a higher global minimum on companies' foreign earnings.
.Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse talks with reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on March 24, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
"What we've seen over the past several decades is that the wealthiest Americans, the big corporations are getting wealthier, and they're contributing less in terms of federal revenue," Rouse said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The European Commission is on board for now as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen works with G20 countries on the issue, Reuters reported earlier in April.
"We hope that the announcements of Secretary Yellen regarding the U.S. position, withdrawing the safe harbor regime proposal and calling for a minimum corporate taxation, will spur a new momentum toward agreement on a consensus-based global solution this summer," European Commission spokesman Dan Ferrie said earlier in April according to Reuters.
There's still work to do – the European Commission wants the minimum rate to be decided in talks with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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Meanwhile, a majority of the nation's top CEOs agree that Biden's plan to raise the corporate tax rate in order to pay for his nearly $2.3 trillion spending proposal will hurt business competitiveness and slow wage growth.
FOX Business' Megan Henney and Blake Burman contributed to this report.