Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Current Events
The U.S. Chamber is committed to pro-growth tax policies that preserve America’s global competitiveness, and it opposes tax increases that reduce businesses’ ability to grow, invest, and create jobs. The Chamber believes that any tax reform should enable businesses to compete globally, attract foreign investment, increase capital for investment, and drive job creation.

The Facts

• Small business owners—including taxpayers earning more than $250,000 (married) and $200,000 (single)—would see their taxes increase by more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years under President Obama’s FY 2013 budget proposal. Here is what the administration’s plan would do:
  • Reinstate the 36% and 39.6% individual income tax rates.
  • Reinstate the personal exemption phaseout and limitations on itemized deductions.
  • Tax long-term capital gains at 20% and dividends as ordinary income.
  • Limit the tax rate at which itemized deductions reduce tax liability.
  • Extend the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes at their 2009 levels (i.e., $3.5 million exemption and top rate of 45%).
• In addition to tax increases on small businesses, the Obama budget proposes almost another half trillion over 10 years of new taxes on American businesses.
  • This includes $148 billion over 10 years on American companies operating globally by changing the deferral regime and the foreign tax credit rules, both of which currently keep American companies competitive in the face of double taxation.
  • Businesses would face tax increases from, for example, the repeal of the last-in, first-out (LIFO) accounting method and punitive taxes on the oil and gas and coal industries.

The Chamber's Pro-Growth Tax Agenda
The Chamber urges Congress and the administration to enact a pro-growth tax agenda that brings rates in line with global competitors and makes compliance simpler.

• Permanently extend all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
• Eliminate—or substantially reform—the alternative minimum tax (AMT) to protect a growing number of individuals and businesses, including many middle class Americans.
• Enact comprehensive tax reform that fosters job growth, competitiveness, and innovation.
• Reduce the budget deficit through higher economic growth, spending restraint, and entitlement reform—not higher taxes.

Tax reform is a key pillar of the U.S. Chamber’s Jobs and Growth Agenda. Click here to learn more about how the President and Congress could fix our broken tax code.

Additional Resources:

Tax Reform
Capital Gains Tax
Alternative Minimum Tax
Estate and Gift Tax (Death Tax)
Tax Extenders
General Business Tax Issues
Individual and Pass-Thru Entity Tax Issues
International Tax Issues