A string of corporate giants have said that they would give back to shareholders any gains they make from corporate tax cuts proposed in the GOP’s tax plan, Bloomberg News reported, undercutting Republican claims that the revenues will quickly trickle down to workers.
The comments from company executives — including those at Cisco Systems Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. — come after the White House released a paper last month arguing that a corporate tax cut would boost wages.
The chief executive of Amgen Inc. said in an October call that the company is “actively returning capital in the form of growing dividend and buyback.”
{mosads}”And I’d expect us to continue,” Robert Bradway said in the call.
These comments were echoed by executives including Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, Pfizer Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Frank D’Amelio and Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer, according to Bloomberg.
Kramer said this month that after the tax cut, the company will “be able to get much more aggressive on the share buyback.”
Senate Republicans were expected to cast a key procedural vote early Wednesday afternoon to begin debate on tax reform, but the timing has slipped some as lawmakers are scrambling to make last-minute adjustments.
Earlier this month, chief White House economic adviser Gary Cohn appeared surprised at an event after few CEOs said they planned to invest more if the GOP’s tax plan is passed.
“If the tax-reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase investment — your company’s investment, capital investment?” an editor asked during an event for The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council.
People were asked to raise their hand.
When few hands were raised, Cohn asked: “Why aren’t the other hands up?”
“More assets like machines let workers produce more, and when workers can produce more, businesses can afford to pay their workers more,” he said last month.