Schumer open to international tax reform this year

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said he is interested in working with other lawmakers to see if an agreement on international tax reform can be reached as soon as this year.

“I’m game to do it because I think it’s really important for American competitiveness,” he said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on business tax reform.

{mosads}Schumer, who is expected to become Senate Democratic leader next year, discussed international tax reform last year with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and now-Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said earlier this month that lawmakers are building off those discussions and that the timing of a bill will depend on when consensus can be reached.

Schumer said Tuesday that he and other Finance Committee Democrats are still ready to work with committee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to reach a deal.

“My advice would be, let’s do the international side first, then we can deal with all the complicated issues elsewhere,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has indicated that he would prefer to address corporate tax reform as part of comprehensive tax reform next year.

In his opening statement at the hearing, Hatch said Congress should find common ground on comprehensive tax reform, but that such an overhaul will have to wait because the Obama administration has not made tax reform a priority.

“In the interim, this committee will continue to lay the foundation and develop pro-growth proposals for when the appropriate opportunity arises,” Hatch said. He said he is working on a proposal on “corporate integration,” which would eliminate the double taxation of corporate income.

“Depending on its design, corporate integration could have the effect of reducing the effective corporate tax rate and help address some of the strong incentives we are seeing today for companies to relocate their headquarters outside of the United States,” Hatch said.