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The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center cohosted a webinar with the University of North Carolina Tax Center titled What Are the Effects of the Biden Administration’s Corporate Tax Proposals? Jared Bernstein, a member of the U.S. Council of Economic Affairs, kicked off the webinar by detailing how the response to the current crisis has been “uniquely strong”. He identified some of the labor market’s constraints and barriers that exist between supply and demand, such as the coronavirus, vaccination rates, affordable childcare, and enhanced unemployment insurance. Shifting the discussion to tax policy, Bernstein believes in a few motivating operations to prioritize. First, we must “relink” pre-tax growth ...

According to the latest report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, global FDI fell 41 percent in the first six months of 2018, following a 23 percent drop in 2017. UNCTAD Investment Chief James Zhan attributes the slump primarily to tax reforms that caused U.S. firms to repatriate $217 billion from foreign affiliates. According to the Organization for International Investment, foreign direct investment into the United States has declined 15 percent since 2000 – but is still valued at $4 trillion, the single largest amount for any nation. FDI in the U.S. is unrivaled due to its highly educated and diverse workforce, intellectual property protections, R&D networks, and pro-business environment at the ...

One of the many stated objectives of the Republican Congress’s tax plan is to encourage companies to repatriate profits. With corporate tax rates slashed from 35 to 21 percent, businesses will have less reason to shelter their earnings offshore, proponents argue. This possibility hasn’t been lost on China, which announced last week it would temporarily exempt foreign companies from paying taxes on all 2017 earnings (New York Times). Despite its reputation for a low cost of doing business, China’s tax burden is higher than popularly perceived. With a corporate rate of 25 percent, China also collects significant social security contributions and other taxes. Although the move does not explicitly reference the U.S. tax ...

By Cody Haddow, IEDC intern, University of British Columbia In recent decades, slow economic and productivity growth has become the norm among advanced economies. The faster growth experienced in the past was primarily the result of the baby boomers reaching their prime working years and an influx of women entering the workforce, trends that are irreproducible today. At the Atlantic’s Summit on the Economy in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, and Dr. Jason Furman, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, discussed feasible pro-growth policies and how the United States can address its productivity deficiencies. Panelists noted that ...

How can economic growth be sustained while also being made more inclusive? Experts convened earlier this month in Washington, D.C., for “Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few” at the Center for American Progress and “From Words to Action: Delivering Inclusive Growth” at the Brookings Institution to discuss these complex issues. At “Saving Capitalism,” former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich asserted that rising inequality stems from government institutions—i.e., rules about labor relations, the environment, property, patents, competition, and more. For most of the 20th century, American institutions served to both generate rapid growth and distribute those benefits to most citizens. But ...

In the middle of crises over a potential shutdown, the debt ceiling, infrastructure and countless other subjects surprisingly tax reform is still getting some attention. House Ways and Means chairman Paul Ryan is still focusing heavily on tax reform. At the moment, he is emphasizing international tax reform. Congressman Ryan is hoping to use the issue of highway funding as an opportunity to push through tax reform, offering to utilize the tax windfall to fund the gaps in the Highway trust fund. Congressman Ryan is proposing a one-time mandatory tax on US companies who are holding profits abroad. In exchange, Ryan would end taxes on foreign profits and lower the overall tax rate for American corporations. The Congressman claims that such a ...

After the release of his budget on Tuesday, president Obama has quickly found his tax overhaul has struck a chord in Congress. The one – time overhaul would raise funds from U.S. firms’ foreign profits, which amount to $2 trillion according to sources. The White House’s proposed 14% tax on multinational firms may be a slightly higher rate than some in Congress would have, but the proposal also includes tax breaks for firms who have been paying taxes in the country in which they currently operate. More importantly, members from both parties have sought out reform measures that could fund badly needed infrastructure investments, widely accepted as a critical to long- term economic growth. Restructuring the current tax ...

OECD released their much-anticipated guidelines for tax avoidance related to the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project In 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), began the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project in response to a clear need to overhaul the international corporate tax scheme. A major deliverable of that project is the guidelines released to the G20 finance ministers earlier this week. The guidelines seek to streamline the international tax scheme in order to both prevent tax base erosion and profit shifting while also providing greater transparency and predictability to businesses operating in multiple markets. The steps taken will benefit countries and businesses, with one major ...