USA TODAY International Edition
Major retailers take stand against tax
CEOs air grievances to President Trump
Retail executives met with President Trump and a key lawmaker Wednesday to express concerns about a potential border adjustment tax they say will erode their bottom line.
But the lawmaker, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R- Texas, said the new levy is all but certain to remain part of a major tax reform package that will likely be enacted this year.
Trump didn’t speak directly to the border adjustment tax but said his plan will cut taxes overall, including for business.
“We’re doing a massive tax plan that is coming along really well. It will be submitted in the not- too- distant future. It will be not only good and simpler, it will be, you’re talking about big numbers of savings.”
Trump said the tax plan would affect middle- income families and would be “very much for business.”
Brady, who met with the CEOs of Gap, Target and several other major retailers, said he welcomed the executives’ thoughts as lawmakers contemplate how to reshape taxes on U. S. businesses. But the socalled border adjustment tax, a provision that would require U. S. companies to start paying taxes on what it costs them to import products, is a critical part of any final plan.
Brady co- authored the blueprint that would require U. S. retailers who currently pay taxes only on the profit made from the sale of an imported product to also pay taxes on what it cost to buy it from abroad.
Many retailers are against the proposal, which the National Retail Federation says will lead to price spikes of up to 15% on items ranging from jeeps to jeans, and endanger retail jobs.
Brady says other countries employ their own version of a border tax to compete against the U. S. The new import tax, coupled with a provision to not tax exports by U. S. businesses, will “stop driving jobs and innovation overseas.’’