Trump tax plan will sharply slash corporate tax rates

[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump on Wednesday will propose slashing corporate income tax rates and steeply discounting the tax rate on overseas corporate profits brought into the United States in a broad blueprint outlining his administration's tax principles, officials said.

Mr Trump intends his plan, which will include some specific tax-cut proposals but fall short of the kind of comprehensive tax reform that Republicans have long discussed, to be a guidepost for lawmakers in the US House of Representatives and Senate.

"We're driving this a little bit more," a senior White House official told a group of reporters late on Tuesday.

Mr Trump has directed aides to cut the income tax rate paid by public corporations to 15 per cent from 35 per cent, another administration official said.

The second official also said Mr Trump planned to propose a repatriation tax on offshore earnings along the lines of his campaign proposal for a 10 per cent levy, versus the 35 per cent due on repatriated foreign profits under present law.

The plan also will include a sharp cut in the top tax rate on pass-through businesses, including many small business partnerships and sole proprietorships, to 15 per cent from 39.6 per cent, the official said.

Mr Trump's proposal will not include a controversial "border-adjustment" tax on imports that was in earlier proposals floated by House Republicans as a way to offset revenue losses resulting from tax cuts.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said Mr Trump's tax plan will pay for itself by stimulating economic growth.

REUTERS