With an estimated $4.5 trillion* in individual, business, and estate tax provisions scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, the Chamber recently convened leading tax practitioners, policymakers, and advocates for a Tax Policy Summit to set the tone for the 18-month education and advocacy blitz we are spearheading in the lead up to the 2025 fiscal cliff.
Given the sheer number of new lawmakers who weren't in office during 2017 tax reform, this convening underscored the necessity of the business community coming together to educate members on the merits of pro-growth tax policies and the need to preserve America’s tax competitiveness.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) kicked off the event with a high-energy discussion on the importance of pro-growth tax policy to maintaining America’s global leadership. Former U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), and former U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)—both of whom were instrumental in passing the historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017—led an insightful discussion of the many benefits to businesses and individuals from that legislation and the path to preserving them in 2025.
"There's $4 trillion of tax hikes at stake that would land in a crushing way on families, workers, small businesses, and U.S. companies," former Chairman Brady said. "So, it's crucial that Congress finds a way to come together to not just extend but improve the tax code."
The event drew around 150 Chamber members in addition to former U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), who’s now at Husch Blackwell Strategies, former U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL ), another architect of the 2017 reforms who’s now at BakerHostetler, and numerous veteran tax policy practitioners like Sage Eastman of Mehlman Consulting, Mark Prater of PwC, Russ Sullivan of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and Arshi Siddiqui of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
While this event was intended to officially launch the Chamber’s education and advocacy push for 2025, we’ve already been meeting with lawmakers and congressional staff to provide detailed information about the positive impacts of various 2017 reforms. We even launched a dedicated online resource to show the impact of the TCJA’s 20% pass-through deduction on businesses, workers, and local economies. Our new interactive map quantifies the impact in every state and congressional district.
Pro-growth tax policy not only leads to higher wages at the individual level but also benefits businesses of all sizes and the communities they serve. The Chamber will continue to tell the positive story of a competitive, pro-growth U.S. tax system in the days and weeks to come.
*Projected net budgetary cost over 10 years of permanently extending all the expiring tax provisions.
Related
About the authors
Watson M. McLeish
Watson McLeish is senior vice president for Tax Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he serves as the primary adviser on all tax policy-related matters.
