Warren, Beyer, Lawmakers Warn Treasury Against Delivering Retroactive Tax Break to Billionaire Corporations

Warren, Beyer, Lawmakers Warn Treasury Against Delivering Retroactive Tax Break to Billionaire Corporations

Billionaire corporations have engaged in lobbying blitz with Treasury to obtain retroactive R&E carveout from Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax

"We urge Treasury not to further rig the tax code in favor of billionaire corporations."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, along with U.S. Representative Don Beyer (D-Va.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, led Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Representatives Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) in questioning Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Kenneth Kies on how Treasury will respond to lobbyists' push to create a loophole in the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT) for billionaire corporations taking massive retroactive research and experimentation (R&E) tax deductions.

"Corporate lobbyists are shamelessly trying to create yet another loophole and undermine this law so that profitable billionaire corporations pay little to no taxes," wrote the lawmakers.

This lobbying push follows a series of regulatory changes and industry-friendly loopholes the Trump administration has implemented to chip away at CAMT, which sets a minimum 15 percent tax rate on the book income of billionaire corporations. These changes, combined with other recent policy changes at Treasury that favor the ultra-wealthy, are set to result in hundreds of billions of dollars in lost tax revenue, according to independent estimates.

Corporations are demanding this additional loophole because of how CAMT interacts with the retroactive R&E expensing tax break in Republicans' Big Beautiful Bill. Retroactive R&E expensing allows corporations to immediately deduct the full costs of R&E expenses they incurred years ago - because it is retroactive, it cannot incentivize any economic activity. This tax break is estimated to hand corporations $67 billion in 2026 and would be an even larger windfall in the absence of CAMT.

If billionaire corporations could subtract these accelerated deductions from CAMT's measure of income, their tax liability could fall far below 15% - and, in some cases, to zero. Even the conservative American Enterprise Institute opposes the creation of such a loophole, stating that "it would be contrary to Congressional intent and would have no economic benefit" and that it would "not encourage additional investment in R&D [research & development]."

"This policy would clearly undermine the purpose of CAMT: to ensure that no billionaire corporation pays a lower tax rate than 15% on the income it reports to shareholders, known as book income," the lawmakers concluded. "We urge Treasury not to further rig the tax code in favor of billionaire corporations by creating a CAMT carveout for retroactive R&E expensing."

The lawmakers requested answers on the Treasury's response to corporate demands for a carveout in CAMT for retroactive R&E expensing by December 17, 2025.

###