Obama budget pitch: Tax offshore profits to fix U.S. roads

Obama budget pitch: Tax offshore profits to fix U.S. roads

By Kim Dixon
2/1/15 10:22 AM EST
Updated 2/1/15 11:44 AM EST


President Barack Obama will revive his pitch to revamp business taxes in his budget vision on Monday — including a mandatory 14 percent tax on corporate profits now stashed abroad — to fix roads, bridges and other infrastructure, according to a White House document.

Obama will propose tapping taxes on the $2 trillion in profits sitting outside the U.S. to “to make critical new investments in our roads, bridges, transit systems and freight networks as part of a $478 billion, six-year surface transportation reauthorization,” according to a summary of the plan.

While the proposal will not go far in the GOP-controlled Congress, it draws battle lines heading into the 2016 presidential contest, which Obama has framed as a fight for “middle-class economics.” It also sends a message as lawmakers begin working on the next long-term funding bill for highway and transit programs.

The proposals will include hiking taxes on capital gains and ending a loophole that benefits the wealthy when their heirs inherit their assets, using the money to fund tax breaks for those lower down the income spectrum.

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http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/barack-obama-2015-budget-proposal-taxes-offshore-114799.html?cmpid=sf