Biden Tax Plan Seen Hitting Tech, Pharmaceutical Companies
- Minimum taxes on profits could limit ability to maneuver
- Companies could still find tax workarounds, experts say
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The tax plan President Joe Biden laid out last week will likely hit technology and pharmaceutical companies particularly hard, although the challenge for legislators will be to minimize loopholes that could diminish the impact, tax experts said.
Much of the most valuable assets at pharmaceutical and tech companies is intellectual property, like patents and algorithms -- intangibles that make it easier for them to structure global operations in a way to minimize tax costs. Sectors like retail or agriculture have lots of physical assets that can’t easily be moved to lower-tax countries.