While Brady said the 35-page tax blueprint is designed to be revenue-neutral, it provides no detail on how much the various proposals would cost. Tax cuts would be paid for by eliminating various deductions, exemptions and credits for individuals and businesses, according to the document, but they aren’t specified. However, for individuals, the plan would retain deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable contributions; and companies would still be eligible for research and development tax credits.

The proposal assumes its tax cuts would spur economic growth that would help make up a revenue shortfall. House Republican leaders haven’t yet developed an estimate for how much growth would result, according to aides who described the plan before its release and asked that their names not be used.

Eliminating some deductions will broaden the tax base, but with the rate cuts, the business-related benefits and the elimination of the estate tax, “I’m quite certain this will score as way short of revenue neutral,” said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden.

‘Destination Basis’

“There’s an attempt here to shift the tax burden more to compensation and away from investment income,” Bernstein said. “That’s regressive, and by hurting those who depend on paychecks as opposed to stock portfolios, will exacerbate after-tax inequality.”

The lower corporate tax rate would be combined with a new “destination basis” for cross-border transactions: Products and services that are exported outside the U.S. would no longer be taxed -- while any products and services that are imported would be. “This will eliminate the incentives created by our current tax system to move or locate operations outside the United States,” the blueprint document says. “It also will allow U.S. products, services and intangibles to compete on a more equal footing in both the U.S. market and the global market.”

Headed Offshore

Since 2012, more than 20 U.S. companies have shifted their tax addresses offshore by merging with foreign counterparts in corporate inversions -- a move designed to take advantage of other countries’ lower corporate taxes. The 35 percent statutory rate in the U.S. is the highest among developed economies; the average such rate is 24.8 percent.

The proposal would also encourage U.S. companies to return more than $2 trillion in earnings they’ve kept offshore to avoid the 35 percent corporate tax rate. Cash or other liquid equivalents stashed abroad would be taxed at just 8.75 percent; other assets at 3.5 percent. Companies would have eight years to pay those taxes. Going forward, companies wouldn’t be taxed on dividends paid to them by their foreign subsidiaries.

The goal, according to Ryan: “Stop taxing people when they bring their money into our country -- so they’ll bring more.”