US Sen. Sherrod Brown Introduces Bill Giving $3,500 Discounts on American-Made Car Purchases
$3,500? Will that offset in increased costs due to the trade war? I like the idea but why oh why did we have to get here to begin with?
Not every vehicle would qualify for the discount. The bill requires that at least 45 percent of the car’s parts come from the U.S. or Canada, and that the final assembly of the car happens in the U.S.
Brown’s office provided a list of almost 100 different vehicles that would qualify, which includes sedans, SUVs, sports cars, luxury cars, and more, according to CNET. Every vehicle made in Ohio made the list. A variety of manufacturers are also included on the list, such as Nissan, Volkswagen, Tesla, and Mercedes-Benz.
According to the bill, funding would come from taking away a tax break given to automakers. Foreign subsidiaries that are owned by companies in the U.S. are currently taxed at zero percent unless their profits are larger than 10 percent of the subsidiary’s value, reported CNET. If the profits exceed that value, then they are taxed 10.5 percent, which is exactly half of the full corporate tax rate.
The senator’s bill proposal includes changing the 10.5 percent tax rate to the full rate of 21 percent depending on certain criteria being met. He believes this will discourage automakers from taking their work overseas, thus improving the state of manufacturing in the U.S.