US international tax policy focus of Senate Finance Committee hearing

Overview

The Senate Finance Committee on March 25 held a hearing on how US international tax policy impacts American workers, jobs, and investment. 

The hearing was held in advance of President Biden’s expected release in late spring of corporate, international, and individual tax proposals that are intended to offset part of the reportedly $3 trillion cost of his ‘Build Back Better’ plan. The Biden administration has announced that President Biden will send his discretionary spending proposals to Congress next week, with details on his other proposals to follow at a later date.

In his opening statement, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) remarked that “it’s time the Congress took a fresh approach” on international tax policy, and that he intends to “reverse” elements of the 2017 tax reform act.  Chairman Wyden stated that  “in coming days” he and Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Mark Warner (D-VA) will release an international tax framework with options for revisions to the global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI), foreign-derived intangible income (FDII), and base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT) regimes. 

The hearing featured testimony by current Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis Kimberly Clausing, former Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy (and PwC consultant) Pam Olson, New York University School of Law Tax Law Center Executive Director Chye-Ching Huang, and University of Michigan Professor of Law and Economics James Hines Jr.

The takeaway

President Biden in late spring is expected to release details of corporate, international, and individual tax proposals that are intended to offset part of the reported $3 trillion cost of his ‘Build Back Better’ plan. In addition, Chairman Wyden is expected to release an international tax framework that will propose changes to current US international tax rules. Companies should be evaluating the potential effect of these tax proposals, and should be communicating with policy makers about how specific proposals may affect their employees, job creation, and investments in the United States.

For more information

For Senate Finance Committee hearing testimony, click here