Most voters are interested in cutting corporate tax rates if doing so would help American companies compete with their foreign counterparts, according to new polling released Monday by a GOP-aligned group.
Fifty-nine percent of voters, including nearly half of Democrats, would strongly or somewhat favor cutting the corporate tax rate if it would help level the playing field in international competition, the poll released by the right-of-center American Action Network found. Fewer than 20 percent oppose the idea.
The idea of lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent, the highest among developed nations, is a key part of the Trump administration’s tax reform push.
In many polls, the public appears to favor higher taxes on corporations and on wealthy individuals, making the tax rate-cutting effort a politically tricky one.
Yet the poll released Monday, which was conducted by Paragon Insights and included nearly 2,000 respondents, suggests that Republicans could find favorable ground for messaging on a corporate rate cut.
“Americans recognize that a complex and unfair tax code has caused jobs and companies to flee our country,” said Corry Bliss, the group’s executive director. “It’s time to for Congress to act and make this right.”
The poll found that a large majority is willing to say that tax reform should be a priority for Congress, and that Republicans are trusted more than Democrats on the issue.
The polling makes clear that the public’s biggest interest in tax policy is a middle-class tax cut. Nearly half of respondents said lowering middle-class taxes should be the top priority, while only 5 percent who said the same for corporate tax rates.
Ahead of a rollout Wednesday of a tax plan with the Trump administration, House Republicans said that including middle-class tax relief is critical for a tax reform bill.
At the same time, big businesses have made it clear that their priority is lowering the corporate tax rate and ending the unusual U.S. practice of taxing companies’ overseas profits.
