It’s a vibrant, competitive, business culture, but the United States has one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the world at 35 percent. The Trump administration wants to reduce it to 15 percent.

CGTN’s Daniel Ryntjes reports.

“We have a once in a generation opportunity to do something really big. President Trump has made tax reform a priority and we have a Republican Congress that wants to get it done,” Gary Cohn, White House chief economic adviser said.

Another goal is to lure U.S. corporations holding around $2.5 trillion of profits overseas and bring it back by using a much reduced one-off tax. Personal income tax rates would also be reduced by increasing the standard deduction to benefit of low and middle income taxpayers.

“This plan is going to lower the debt to GDP. The economic plan under Trump will grow the economy and will create massive amounts of revenues, trillions of dollars in additional revenues,” Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury Secretary said.

Critics, including many Democrats, said economic studies demonstrate that this theory about stimulative tax cuts actually raising revenues isn’t born out in practice.

At a time when U.S. public debt exceeds the country’s total annual GDP, the White House said it will eliminate many current tax deductions to raise additional revenues and simplify a hugely complex system.

The administration has now begun the intensive process of negotiating the crucial details of this plan with Congress, while also attempting to balance out the competing interests of different segments of the business community.