POLITICS

Business leaders, Buchanan talk taxes

Zac Anderson
zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com

SARASOTA — Meeting with local business leaders Friday, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan heard firsthand why tax reform — the next big item on the GOP agenda for Congress — could be just as thorny of an issue as health care.

Buchanan spoke to the Argus Foundation, a business-oriented group, about the tax reform bill being crafted by Republican leaders. He touched on issues such as a proposed new border tax, plans to simplify the tax code by reducing the number of special tax deductions and lowering rates for corporations and individuals.

Many of these proposals face significant opposition, though. One of the first questions Buchanan received was about the proposed “border adjustment tax.”

The border tax would raise revenue to help offset the federal government's lost income from cutting the corporate tax rate, which currently tops out at 35 percent. But it has met with opposition from free trade advocates, including a number of leading Republican lawmakers.

“Normally Republicans are free traders,” said the audience member, who pointed out that the border tax would make imported goods more expensive.

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Buchanan responded by noting that many other countries charge border taxes and said the proposal could help balance that out.

“Am I a free trader? Yes,” Buchanan said. “But I want to make sure it’s fair. I don’t like being played and I think we’ve been played in a lot of these trade agreements.”

Another audience member praised a piece of legislation Buchanan has sponsored that would help smaller businesses give employees access to retirement plans such as 401(k)s, which have tax advantages. The bill uses tax incentives to help accomplish that goal, exactly the type of special tax break that could be targeted for repeal in the GOP plan in the name of simplification.

“I’d like to know a little bit about balancing the ... goal of simplifying the tax code and also encouraging wealth building for working-class Americans,” said the audience member.

Buchanan responded by citing statistics on how little savings most Americans have, and said encouraging saving is a big priority for him.

Yet just as with health care, there are a lot of competing priorities when it comes to tax reform and it’s unclear whether Congress can craft something that balances those interests.

Republicans also face opposition from the left as they push to lower corporate tax rates. Half a dozen protesters stood on the sidewalk outside where Buchanan was speaking at The Francis in downtown Sarasota.

They were organized by Doreen Dupont, a Longboat Key resident who founded one of the local Indivisible groups that have arisen since President Donald Trump’s victory to push back against his agenda and the GOP-controlled Congress. Dupont said Congress should first focus on closing “loopholes” that allow corporations to avoid paying taxes, not cutting the corporate rate.

“There’s many loopholes in corporate taxes so that the very largest corporations pay no tax; they’re draining our economy,” Dupont said.

Buchanan is the only member of Congress from Florida on the Ways and Means Committee, which is crafting the House’s tax reform package. He acknowledged Friday that it is a complicated issue.

“A lot of people have different agendas,” he said.