Chairman Dave Camp on the Prospects and Need for Tax Reform

Last night, former Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp discussed the urgent need for tax reform in the Laurence Neal Woodworth Memorial Lecture at the 2015 ABA Section of Taxation May Meeting.

You can read excerpts from his speech below. The full text as prepared for delivery is available here.

The Prospects for Tax Reform

"We know that the two new Chairmen of the tax writing committees want to do tax reform. While we don't know when they will complete this project, make no mistake a new tax code is being built in Washington. That is why I believe 2015 is a very important year for tax reform. With recent GDP reports showing the US economic growth stalling, we simply can't wait longer to reform our tax laws to promote more, better-paying jobs here at home and make US businesses more competitive globally. 2017 or 2018 is too long for the American people to wait."

The Need for Tax Reform

"From a business standpoint, we must have tax reform. The current system tilts the playing field against US companies competing for acquisitions of foreign companies and US companies with foreign operations. Our current worldwide tax system essentially places a premium on the value of US companies, assets in the hands of a foreign bidder."

"The recent wave of inversions and foreign takeovers show that, one way or another, corporate America will seek to accomplish tax reform for itself. But allowing that trend to continue represents a failure of Washington to protect the U.S. economy and the jobs it creates. And that is something the American people will tolerate for only so long. In the absence of action by Congress to enact a more competitive US tax system, there will be an increase in the pace of US companies being acquired by foreign competitors, and our current worldwide tax system will continue to effectively subsidize the treasuries of the world's richest countries seeking to tax US multinationals."