Levin said the IRS investigation doesn’t mean “the air is out of the room” on rewriting tax laws, though it has put his investigations of U.S. companies shifting revenue overseas on a “side track.”
Crafting Legislation
Levin is crafting legislation that would end some offshore tax benefits for companies.
Levin’s support for business tax changes that would raise fresh revenue sets him apart from others who back a budget- neutral rewrite of corporate taxes. That position has drawn support from President Barack Obama and Representative Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Camp says his committee will pass a bill this year that would lower tax rates for individuals and businesses and remove or curtail tax breaks. He has released draft legislation on international taxation, small businesses and financial products.
The Senate Finance Committee has been holding a series of bipartisan meetings on the issue.
Obama has offered a framework for business tax changes that would reduce the top corporate rate for most companies to 28 percent from 35 percent.
Levin said tax breaks “ought to go” if they “can’t be justified as a way of producing cleaner air, cleaner water, using less energy, building a home through a mortgage” or other economic grounds.
“We shouldn’t even think about using that revenue for anything other than deficit reduction,” he said.