POLITICS/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Republican tax plan in the House of Representatives, which could form the basis for President Trump’s overhaul of the nation’s tax system, contains plenty of measures that are likely to inflame partisan tensions.
But one of the plan’s most important provisions could secure bipartisan support, and win acclaim from tax experts and economists. The groundbreaking shifts envisioned by the provision would influence the way corporations in the United States raise money and invest.
The House measure would cause a sea change in how companies account for debt, perhaps their most important source of financing. It would stop companies from treating the interest they pay on their borrowings as an expense for tax purposes, something they have done for many decades. Right now, the interest paid on debt reduces a firm’s taxable profits, effectively allowing it to pay less in tax.”
-Peter Eavis, “House Tax Plan May Shift Use of Corporate Debt,” The New York Times online, April 5, 2017