Tax reform has been delayed because of Republicans’ struggles with replacing Obamacare, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin acknowledged in an interview published Monday.
The Trump administration is still aiming to pass an overhaul of the tax code this year and is weighing major questions such as whether to include the import tax included in the House Republican proposal, Mnuchin also said.
“It is fair to say it is probably delayed a bit because of the healthcare,” Mnuchin told the Financial Times.
It was Mnuchin, formerly a banker and financier before joining the government, who initially set a goal of having President Trump sign tax reform legislation by August.
Yet the administration and members of Congress say that they still hope to get a reform passed in 2017. Potentially, such legislation could change the taxes workers and businesses pay for 2017, even if it is signed late in the year.
To get there, though, the White House will have to resolve a number of conflicts and build political support for a measure that inevitably would hurt certain interests.
One early question is whether Trump will back the House GOP border-adjusted cash flow business tax.
Mnuchin said the proposal was just one of a number of options that the administration is considering. “That is not to say we have taken it off the table,” he noted.
Backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, the border-adjusted tax would allow companies to deduct export sales from taxable income, but would disallow them from deducting the cost of imported goods. As a result, the idea has received aggressive pushback from retailers, refiners, and other importing industries, and received a cool reception from Senate Republicans.
