Political pundits, media anchors, and celebrities might have been surprised by the results of the election, but I wasn't. I've been speaking with manufacturers, innovators, small business owners, and families in Kansas and across the country and they all had the same message: We need to change the economic trajectory of our country.
I couldn't agree more—and tax reform that unlocks innovation is how we do that.
Now that the stage has been set for 2025, it's time to take action. Tax reform is an issue that all Americans, regardless of their party affiliation, can get behind. The average taxpayer in the Fourth District of Kansas—my district—would see a 27 percent tax hike if provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are allowed to expire. That equates to the average Kansas family seeing their taxes increase by more than $2,200. After years of elevated inflation no American can afford this extra expense.
The expiration of TCJA's business provisions would also hurt families and individuals. Without these provisions, one of which allows immediate expensing for research and development (R&D), businesses—small and large alike—will face increased costs, which ultimately leads to higher costs for consumers. In my district alone, more than 46,900 small businesses would face a 43.4 percent tax rate increase if the 199A Small Business Deduction expires. Failing to renew these provisions would be a mistake.
The data confirm the success of TCJA, including its business provisions. Before TCJA, foreign-owned businesses were buying up American businesses using a process called inversion. There has not been a single corporate inversion since TCJA was implemented, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently reported FY24 corporate receipts of $529 billion. This far exceeds CBO's post-TCJA projection of $421 billion in corporate receipts. All of this means more tax revenue in the U.S. treasury, more jobs in the United States, and more homegrown innovation.
And keeping innovation in our country is critical.
We are competing globally for innovation, R&D dollars, and jobs. If we don't renew and expand our critical innovation policies, then jobs, manufacturing facilities, and cutting-edge technologies will grow elsewhere. This is why Republicans and Democrats agree that we need a tax code that encourages U.S. innovation, and it is why my bill to restore R&D expensing is one of the most bipartisan cosponsored bills in Congress.
My home state of Kansas is bustling with innovation, including breakthroughs to advance defense and aerospace technology, biotechnology, chips and semiconductors, and biofuels and carbon-capture technology. But the companies making these advances are hampered by bad policies, like R&D amortization, that affect more than just businesses; they affect workers as well. Three-quarters of research and development spending goes toward wages and salaries, making R&D amortization not just an investment, tax, and intellectual property issue, but also an important jobs issue.
TCJA helped reinvigorate the U.S. tax code and make it more competitive, resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars in new royalties from U.S. intellectual property. These new royalties contributed tax revenue to the U.S. treasury and led to the creation of new American jobs. By preserving, protecting, and improving TCJA next year, we can reignite this same kind of growth.
As a member of the Ways and Means Committee and the chair of its U.S. Innovation Tax Team, I've spent countless hours traveling around my district—and around the country—to hear directly from workers, business owners, and manufacturers to understand how TCJA helped them and how they would be negatively affected if its provisions expired. A clear, consistent message has come through: America needs a common-sense, consistent tax code that encourages growth and doesn't penalize our workers and family businesses.
The House of Representatives has already shown that it is possible to find consensus on this sort of common-sense, pro-growth policy by passing the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act in January. Not only did this legislation pass, but it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 357-70, a rare feat these days. Congress and the American people have an appetite for sensible tax reform that will boost the economy and allow Americans to keep more money in their pockets. It's our job now to come together and deliver it.
Ron Estes, one of only a handful of engineers in Congress, worked in the aerospace, energy and manufacturing sectors before representing Kansas' Fourth Congressional District since 2017. He is a fifth-generation Kansan, former state treasurer, and serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, Budget Committee, and Education and the Workforce Committee.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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