Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday night announced his proposal to reform the tax code, a system he repeatedly describes as a “convoluted” nightmare that’s driving American companies to move overseas.
In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Bush called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 20% and reducing the number of individual tax brackets to three, leaving about 15 million Americans exempt from any income-tax liability.
Details from his plan were published on the eve of a speech he’s set to deliver in Garner, North Carolina, marking his next step in a series of policy addresses that have already focused on foreign policy and government reform.
The tax pitch comes as Bush attempts to steal back some of the spotlight from GOP front-runner Donald Trump, focusing on his record of cutting taxes while pointing out that Trump wants to raise rates on the wealthy.
In his op-ed, Bush blasted the tax code as “a labyrinth littered with thousands of special-interest giveaways, subsidies and other breaks written to favor Washington insiders.”
It advances what he called President Barack Obama’s agenda of “low growth, crony capitalism and easy debt,” he wrote.
Bush proposes reducing individual rates to three brackets down from seven — 28%, 25% and 10% — and he would lower the corporate tax rate to 20%, down from 35%.
His plan also eliminates “the marriage penalty, expands the Earned Income Tax Credit, ends the death tax, retires the Alternative Minimum Tax and ends the employee’s share of the Social Security tax on earnings for workers older than 67,” he wrote.
Another component of his proposal involves capping certain deductions and treating “all noninvestment income the same.”
“So unless you stake capital in an investment, you won’t be able to claim the capital-gains tax rate on your market gains,” he wrote.
Businesses, however, would be allowed to deduct new capital investment.
To help bring businesses back from other countries, he wants to place a one-time tax of 8.75% on the more than $2 trillion in corporate profits sitting overseas. The amount would be payable over 10 years.
A campaign official confirmed that Bush met Tuesday with three high-profile conservatives who favor large tax cuts — economist Stephen Moore with the Heritage Foundation, publishing executive Steve Forbes and CNBC’s Larry Kudlow. The Washington Post first reported the meeting.
Last week, Bush appeared to preview the general themes of his tax proposal while campaigning in New Hampshire.
“The tax code is rife with — well-intended perhaps — but ideas that stifle the ability of people to invest in their own dreams,” he said, advocating for a plan that lowers “tax rates as low as possible — personal and corporate taxes — and eliminate(s) the deductions as much as possible.”
Bush’s tax proposal is another chance to draw a contrast with Trump, who also wants to lower corporate taxes but favors raising taxes on the wealthy. Bush, for example, frequently points out that he cut taxes by $19 billion while serving as governor of Florida.
“Donald Trump has proposed, in his most recent past, the highest tax increase in American history,” he said Thursday at a town hall in Laconia, New Hampshire.
Critics, however, like to highlight that the $19 billion figure was in part owed to the federal repeal of the estate tax.