BIDEN WILLING TO ACCEPT 25% CORPORATE TAX TO FUND PROGRAMS

US President Joe Biden said a corporate tax rate between 25% and 28% could help pay for badly needed infrastructure, suggesting he could accept a lower rate than what he has proposed in his search for Republican support for the funding, Trevor Hunnicutt reported for Reuters.

"The way I can pay for this is making sure that the largest companies don't pay zero, and reducing the (2017 corporate) tax cut to between 25 and 28" percent, Biden said during a visit to Lake Charles, Louisiana.

In his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, the Democratic president initially proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Tax experts and congressional aides told Reuters in April that a 25% rate would be a likely compromise.

"What I'm proposing is badly needed" and will be paid for, said Biden, dismissing the "trickle-down" theory that helping businesses and the wealthy will benefit those farther down the economic ladder.

"We've got to build from the bottom up and the middle out."

The US corporate tax rate dropped to 21% from 35% after the 2017 tax cut pushed by then-President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans, but many big US companies pay much less.

Increasing what companies pay into the more than $4 trillion federal budget is an important part of Biden’s plan to restructure the US economy to reduce inequality and to try to counter China’s rise.

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