Ex-GOP Tax Chief Brady Joins Business Group Ahead of 2025 Cliff

Former House Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-Texas) is making a return to Capitol Hill representing business interests aiming to protect tax breaks gained in the 2017 tax law, which he helped author.

Brady is joining the Alliance for Competitive Taxation as a spokesperson and strategic adviser as much of the law’s provisions sunset at the end of 2025. The goal, he told Bloomberg Tax in an exclusive interview, is to in part sustain wins secured in 2017 and push for new policy, particularly in the international space.

ACT members include Cisco Systems Inc., Google Inc. and Boeing Co., among others. The coalition formed in 2013, and its priorities helped lawmakers craft the 2017 tax law, Brady said.

Brady chaired the House tax panel when the tax law was enacted, ushering in a swath of new tax breaks for individuals and corporations. The law slashed the top corporate rate from 35% to 21%.

Pillar Two

International tax policy will be one of Brady’s chief priorities in his role at ACT, as well as protecting the corporate rate and research and development provisions, he said.

While the international and corporate portions of the 2017 law aren’t expiring, countries around the world are moving to implement the OECD-brokered 15% global minimum tax. The 2025 schedule will likely drive Congress to act on those international issues, Brady said.

“I think Pillar Two creates the greatest concerns for lawmakers, both in its complexity, its compliance costs, and because it touches so many key provisions in the existing tax code,” Brady said. “My sense is both parties are looking at this area and are going to welcome policy ideas.”

Looking Forward

Brady sees opportunities for bipartisan agreement during tax negotiations next year. The $78 billion bipartisan tax package now stalled in the Senate shows there’s a way to balance the pro-growth initiatives like the research and development tax break with provisions like the child tax credit, Brady said.

Though the package of business and family tax breaks hasn’t mustered enough votes in the Senate, Brady said it’s been helpful for the tax leaders to work on these issues. He pointed to the business provisions in that legislation—tax breaks for research and development, interest, and capital expenses—as aspects of the 2017 law with bipartisan support. The bill passed the House in January in a show of broad support from both sides of the aisle.

The deduction for pass-through business income under Section 199A, the increase in the standard deduction, and other individual provisions are possible areas for more bipartisan support, Brady said.

“Just because a bill ends up having a partisan vote, doesn’t meant there aren’t bipartisan provisions in it,” Brady said. No Democrat supported the 2017 law.