Democrats tee off on possible Treasury corporate tax move
Source: Roll Call
Posted December 4, 2025 at 8:16am
A group of Democrats in both chambers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr. of Virginia, is leading opposition to a potential regulatory carve-out from a new minimum tax on corporate profits that critics say could generate an unjustified windfall for big companies. The Treasury Department and IRS are weighing a proposal from mega corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft and Ford Motor Co. that would address what they say is an unwelcome, unintended consequence of interactions among three major tax laws dating back to 2017.
If the regulatory boon is granted, these and other companies could get big refunds for research and development spending prior to 2025, which the Democratic critics say would drain the U.S. Treasury for little reason other than to reward donors.
“Retroactive [research and experimentation] expensing is already an indefensible policy because it is essentially a tax break for research that has already happened — and therefore a giveaway that cannot incentivize economic activity,” Warren, Beyer and seven other Democrats wrote Wednesday in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Kenneth Kies, Treasury assistant secretary for tax policy.
The letter from Warren and others, shared with CQ Roll Call, points to estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation that next year beneficiary companies could receive $67 billion worth of tax deductions. They cited a separate estimate from the left-leaning Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy that Amazon alone could receive nearly $23 billion. The tax breaks would be offset in large part in later years, the JCT said, as companies would no longer be able to claim those accelerated deductions in the future as they would in the absence of the policy change.
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2025/12/04/democrats-tee-off-on-possible-treasury-corporate-tax-move/
Link to LETTER (inquiry) (PDF) - Warren Letter to Treasury re CAMT and Retroactive RE Expensing