The American president Barack Obama proposes to Congress to cut corporate taxes from 35 to 28%. The maneuver also includes incentives for development, research and renewable energy and will be financed with the farewell to some tax breaks, especially for multinationals operating abroad. The Obama administration thus aims to discourage companies from moving production out of the United States and from "playing accounting games by transferring capital abroad," explained the US Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who will present today the tax reform he has been working on for two years.
These maneuvers "will help companies follow the same rules - he added - and will allow the government to collect the revenue necessary to promote growth". Obama thus meets the needs of companies and the Republican Party, who has called for a corporate tax cut to 25%, arguing that the current 35% tax hurts the competitive position of American businesses.
However, not all companies actually pay the 35% of contributions to the state. At least 115 of the 500 companies listed on the S&P index, for example, pay less than 20% into the public purse. The American president has warned that the cut in corporate taxes will not weigh on the deficit, thus trying to deny the opinion of many experts according to which a substantial reduction in taxes would inevitably lead to an increase in the public deficit.
The Obama administration, as announced in the 2013 budget proposal, aims to finance the new tax reform by setting a minimum tax for companies investing abroad and cutting spending in over 200 sectors.
