Senate Democrats release more details of international tax plan

A trio of Senate Democrats on Wednesday released additional details of their proposal to overhaul international taxation, as Democrats turn their attention to drafting a wide-ranging bill that advances President Biden’s economic agenda.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and committee members Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) released draft legislation that builds on a proposal they released in April. The draft bill is aimed at increasing taxes on multinational corporations and raising revenue to pay for Biden’s social spending proposals.

“Our draft legislation would generate critical revenue to pay for priorities in Democrats’ reconciliation bill, and encourage additional investment in our country and its workers,” Wyden said in a statement.

The senators’ draft legislation focuses on making changes to three international tax provisions in Republicans’ 2017 tax law in an effort to encourage companies to make investments in the United States. The plan has some similarities to proposals Biden has offered to raise taxes on corporations.

“With today’s discussion draft release, we are taking another important next step toward reforming our international tax policy,” Warner said. “We need a system that incentivizes companies to make investments here in the U.S. in cutting-edge R&D, domestic production, and training American workers for the high-quality jobs of the future.”

The senators released the draft legislation one day after the House adopted a Senate-passed budget resolution that paves the way for Democrats to pass a forthcoming $3.5 trillion spending package without any Republican votes. Democrats are expected to include in the bill spending in areas such as child care, education and climate, and they want to offset the cost of the bill by raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.

Wyden, Warner and Brown are hoping that their international tax proposal can be incorporated into the broader package, and they have expressed optimism that their proposal can get widespread support from their Democratic colleagues. Brown is one of the more progressive senators, while Warner is more moderate.

“This plan will fix our broken system that rewards companies for shipping jobs overseas, undo the damage from the Republican corporate tax handout of 2017, and allow us to invest in our greatest assets – American workers and our kids,” Brown said.