Vice President Kamala Harris is looking to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% if elected president, NBC News reported on Monday.
The federal corporate tax rate in the U.S. is currently 21%, as enshrined in former President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But Harris seeks to move the tax rate to 28% to draw in funding for plans she would have as president, mirroring a proposal made by President Joe Biden in March, according to NBC.
A 28% corporate tax rate would be “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share,” Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer told NBC in a statement on Monday. “As President, Kamala Harris will focus on creating an opportunity economy for the middle class that advances their economic security, stability, and dignity.”
If passed, the law would bring in roughly $700 billion dollars worth of taxes over the next decade, according to projections provided by the Congressional Budget Office. It is lower than what Harris initially proposed during the 2020 presidential race, which would have raised the corporate tax rate from 21% to 35%, where it originally was before Trump’s 2017 tax cuts were passed, according to NBC.
The 2017 law is set to expire in 2025, and Trump has said that Democrats will be “under tremendous pressure” to renew the cuts, warning that failing to do so or making “it impossible to renew” will “destroy the economy,” according to NBC. Trump has also vowed to slash taxes even further should he be elected president in November.
“Instead of a Biden tax hike, I’ll give you a Trump middle class, upper class, lower class, business class big tax cut,” Trump told a crowd at a rally in New Jersey in May.
Singer told NBC that Trump’s policy ideas would “drive up the deficit” and “increase taxes on the middle class,” linking him to the “extreme Project 2025 agenda.” Trump and his campaign have repeatedly said that they were not involved in the creation of Project 2025, a set of sweeping policy proposals put forward by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.
Harris’ proposed tax hike is among the first of her policy proposals put forward by her campaign since she announced her candidacy in late July. She laid out her vision for American economic policy in a rally speech on Friday, but specifics or cost estimates for some of her ideas have yet to be provided.
Harris is likely to be appointed at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week as her party’s nominee. The convention will take place from Aug. 19 to Aug. 23.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
