CNN
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Donald Trump portrayed himself as a great friend of big business, especially during his first term. One of his most notable efforts was cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% as part of his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which included numerous other beneficial measures for corporations.

And he’s promising businesses he’ll do even more of the same if re-elected in November. On Tuesday, he’s scheduled to outline his plan to cut taxes for American business owners and stress the importance of buying American-made goods in a speech in Savannah, Georgia.

The former president has already announced plans to raise tariffs, which he has repeatedly claimed would help domestic manufacturers, and to further reduce the corporate tax rate to 15%, but only for companies that manufacture their products in the U.S. In addition, he wants to renew several of the TCJA’s corporate tax changes – as well as all income and estate tax cuts – that are expiring or have already lapsed.

Some of his plans stand in stark contrast to those of his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28% and quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks to 4% to fund her plans to support the middle class and working Americans. She has also expressed support for President Joe Biden’s recent budget proposal, which includes a series of tax increases on big corporations and wealthy people to ensure they pay their fair share.

Trump’s promised tax cuts for corporations come on top of his ever-growing list of targeted tax breaks for individuals. He has promised to eliminate federal taxes on tips, overtime and benefits and to restore the deductibility of state and local taxes, which was curtailed by his tax cut package.

Any tax cuts proposed by Trump would require approval by Congress, which could be difficult even with a clear Republican majority in both chambers. However, Trump could implement his tariff policy by executive order.

To help businesses, Trump proposes the following:

Trump has announced that if re-elected, he will impose tariffs of up to 20 percent on all foreign imports into the United States, as well as additional tariffs of up to 60 percent on all Chinese imports. He also announced that he would impose a “100 percent tariff” on countries that turn away from the U.S. dollar.

These new tariffs would be in addition to those he imposed on about $380 billion worth of imports during his tenure in the White House, including many goods made in China as well as steel and aluminum from several countries.

Trump used the tariffs, among other things, to boost American production. But even if the tariffs help some domestic producers, they hurt others.

For example, Trump’s tariffs have made foreign steel more expensive for U.S. consumers – so much so that some may switch to an American steel supplier. This is good for U.S. steel producers, and as a result, some American steel companies have reopened their plants and created new jobs after the tariffs were imposed.

But for U.S. manufacturers that use steel to make their products, it is more expensive, and the higher price comes at the expense of their profits.

Several studies – including one by the Tax Foundation and another by the US-China Business Council – conclude that Trump’s tariffs have harmed the US economy overall and led to a net loss of jobs.

In 2019, Federal Reserve economists found a net decline in manufacturing employment due to the tariffs. That’s largely because goods became more expensive for U.S. businesses and consumers, and the retaliatory tariffs on American-made goods hurt the competitiveness of other U.S. manufacturers when selling abroad.

During Trump’s term in office, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce frequently criticized the president’s tariff policies.

“Tariffs not only increase costs for businesses and consumers, they also create uncertainty that hampers economic growth,” wrote John Murphy, who heads the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s international trade and investment policy advocacy group, in 2021.

Biden has kept most of the tariffs imposed by Trump and recently increased tariffs on some goods made in China.

Trump has long wanted to reduce the corporate tax rate to below 21 percent. He presented his latest proposal at the Economic Club of New York earlier this month: a rate of 15 percent for companies that manufacture their products in the United States.

“If you outsource, relocate or replace American workers, you are not entitled to these benefits. In fact, you have to pay a very high tariff if a product comes from another country,” the former president said in his speech.

The campaign has not provided details about the measure, but some experts say it sounds similar to the Section 199 domestic manufacturing activity tax deduction, which provides 9% of income from domestic production. The complicated deduction existed between 2004 and 2017 as an incentive for companies to produce more goods and employ more workers in the U.S., particularly manufacturers, but was eliminated by the TCJA in favor of a simpler, lower 21% corporate tax rate.

This targeted tax cut would complement Trump’s efforts to increase tariffs on imported products, said John Gimigliano, head of tax legislation services at KPMG in the United States.

“You can see that in a way it all fits together, because if we really want to become less dependent on foreign goods, we have to produce them here,” he said.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, reinstating the deduction at an effective tax rate of 15 percent would result in a revenue loss of $200 billion.

While most of the TCJA’s corporate tax changes are permanent, some measures have already expired or will soon expire. Trump has promised to extend the entire law, while Harris has indicated she would favor allowing provisions targeting the wealthy and big corporations to expire.

In particular, the tax cut law temporarily created a special deduction for the owners of certain pass-through businesses that pay corporate taxes on their individual tax returns. This deduction, which also expires at the end of 2025, allows these taxpayers to deduct up to 20% of business income from federal income taxes. These so-called pass-through businesses include partnerships such as those formed by lawyers, doctors or investors.

If the corporate tax changes in the TCJA were extended, companies would again be able to deduct the costs of their investments in research and experimentation in the U.S. immediately, rather than after five years, and would be able to deduct 100% of their investments in machinery and equipment immediately. In addition, the extension of the law would again impose higher limits on the deductibility of interest expenses. GOP lawmakers had included these three proposed tax increases in the TCJA to offset its costs.