Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., has introduced two pieces of bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Republican lawmakers to rebuild infrastructure by encouraging U.S.-based multinational companies to repatriate the profits they hold abroad at reduced tax rates.
One of the bills, co-sponsored by Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., is called the Partnership to Build America Act. It would create an American Infrastructure Fund to finance state and local infrastructure projects, capitalized through a one-time $50 billion bond sale to U.S. corporations looking to repatriate part of their international earnings. The fund could be leveraged at a 15:1 ratio to provide up to $750 billion in loans or guarantees to state and local governments for infrastructure projects.
The other bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Ted Yoho R-Fla., is known as the Infrastructure 2.0 Act. Originally introduced by Delaney in 2013, it too would create the American Infrastructure Fund, as well as provide extra revenue to expand the Highway Trust Fund using international tax reform. Under the Infrastructure 2.0 Act, U.S. multinationals’ existing foreign profits would be subject to a one-time tax of 8.75 percent, replacing the tax deferral option and the current top corporate tax rate of 35 percent. To encourage action, the legislation includes a forcing function, so if more comprehensive tax reform is not enacted by Congress, a fallback international tax reform package would take effect. Under this option, for active-market foreign income, companies would pay a 12.25 percent tax to the U.S. on overseas profits if they are currently paying no tax, and a 2 percent tax to the U.S. if they are already paying an average of 25 percent abroad, with a sliding scale in between.
“Our infrastructure solution delivers a triple bottom-line: it creates good-paying jobs, boosts our long-term economic competitiveness and improves the quality of life of millions of people,” Delaney said in a statement. “There is a lot of interest on both sides of the aisle in infrastructure and our solution bridges the partisan gap.”
