Last Thursday, in this joint statement, the "Big Six," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), released their initial guidelines for tax reform.
The group plans to release the full details for legislation next month with President Trump claiming that the reforms will be “the biggest in our country’s history.” The Blueprint will likely be the foundational document of the tax reform strategy that the President uses for his plan. According to Majority Leader McConnell, the priorities for tax reform will be lowering the corporate rate down to 20-25%, shifting to a territorial tax system and lowering the rates on pass-throughs.
McConnell’s office has also mentioned the elimination of the estate tax, addressing capital gains, and expensing will likely continue to be components of whatever plan the White House releases. The House is preparing a FY2018 budget that will include reconciliation instructions for tax reform that will allow the bill to pass the Senate with a 51-vote majority instead of 60 votes.
Edward Orlet
Ed Orlet, NAED Senior Vice President of Membership and Government Relations, serves as a facilitator for diverse distributor and cross-industry groups, as well as moderating industry panels nationwide. Before joining NAED in 2001, Orlet worked as a distributor salesperson to mechanical contracting and OEM markets. He has more than 20 years’ experience in distribution and sales to construction, institutional, and industrial customers. He also worked on the legislative staff in the Illinois State Senate. Ed holds a Bachelor of Science degree in advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.