Treasury Department Working On Corporate Tax Reform, Geithner Says

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is working on a comprehensive proposal for corporate tax reform, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Geithner told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the proposal will be pro-investment and "revenue neutral," so that a cut in the corporate tax rate would have to be offset by new revenue.

He did not say whether the administration will introduce the plan in the form of a legislative proposal or when it would be unveiled.

President Barack Obama and lawmakers have been exploring an overhaul of the tax code, which all sides agree is exceedingly complex and lengthy at more than a million words.

Obama has talked about trimming the top marginal corporate rate, which at 35 percent is among the steepest in the industrialized world.

Geithner has told lawmakers that his goal would be to get the corporate rate closer to that of major U.S. trading partners, around the high 20-percent level.

(Reporting by David Lawder, Rachelle Younglai and Kim Dixon; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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