Only the tax preparation service H&R Block won’t like a forthcoming White House tax plan meant to simplify filing, President Trump said Wednesday in a meeting with business leaders.
“H&R Block probably won’t be too happy. That’s one business that won’t be too happy,” Trump told a group of retail chief executives visiting him at the White House.
Trump’s plan, which he says is coming in weeks, will be “massive” and will “lower the rates very, very substantially for virtually everybody in every category,” he said.
Unmentioned was the controversial House Republican plan to adjust taxes at the border, a provision that would effectively tax imports.
The retail group visiting Trump Wednesday has been the top critic of that plan, as it could raise costs for businesses that import goods for sale in the U.S.
In a statement on the meeting, the group, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, simply said that it was a “positive and productive conversation.”
House Republicans have proposed taxing imports as part of a broader corporate rate-cutting reform that would tax goods based on where they are sold. In the plan, companies would no longer be allowed to deduct the cost of imported goods and services, but would no longer pay any taxes on revenues from exports. In today’s system, U.S. companies are taxed on all profits, whether they are earned in the U.S. or abroad. Republicans say that the change would encourage more manufacturing within the U.S. and discourage companies from moving production overseas.
Trump has not signaled definitively whether he backs the proposal. Instead, the White House has said it is an option under consideration.
