Budget Director Mick Mulvaney: White House ‘happy’ with 20 percent corporate tax rate

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney says the White House is “happy” with the proposed 20 percent corporate tax rate, despite President Trump’s expressed willingness to set the rate at 22 percent.

Mr. Mulvaney said the president’s remark should not be viewed as a policy change.

“I don’t think it’s a change,” Mr. Mulvaney said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I think what you heard the president say is, look, we’re very close to the finish line. You know he’s wanted a 15 percent rate from the very beginning. That moved to a 20 percent rate as part of the discussion. My understanding is that the Senate has a 20 percent rate now, the House has a 20 percent rate now. We’re happy with both of those numbers.”

He added that the White House is flexible if “something happens in conference that gets us to the finish line,” but any changes to the tax reform bill will be evaluated “on a case-by-case basis.”

Mr. Trump on Saturday suggested the corporate tax rate could be 22 percent when all is said and done.

“It could be 22 when it comes out, but it could also be 20,” the president told reporters on Saturday. “We’ll see what ultimately comes out.”

Mr. Mulvaney disputed the notion that the Internal Revenue Service will have to be expanded in order to enforce the new tax code.

“Keep in mind, there’s not a lot of new regulations,” he said. “Yeah, you’re going to change the way you treat, again, pass-through entities. But a lot of the deductions are gone. A lot of the loopholes are gone. … There is still some simplification, so I don’t think, no, you’re not going to see a dramatic increase in the size of the IRS to administer this law.”

Although filing taxes will still be complicated for small businesses, Mr. Mulvaney said for the great majority of Americans the new plan will make tax season less arduous.

“They will be [simplified], they will be for ordinary people,” he said. “For ordinary Americans, they will be. For small businesses, they’re still going to be fairly complex. But they always were. You know when you signed up to be a pass-through entity, that your life is going to be fairly complicated for taxes. But for ordinary folks, it will be.”