Tax bills for most small construction companies would fall under a broad tax-reform outline unveiled on Sept. 27 by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans.

The proposal calls for cutting the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35%. Perhaps most important for small construction firms, the tax rate for pass-through businesses would be limited to 25%. Pass-through entities, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and S-corporations, are taxed at individual, not corporate, rates, which hurts many construction companies in those categories.

Historically, construction has faced the highest effective tax burden of any industry, according to an earlier analysis by the U.S. Treasury Dept.

“By lowering the pass-through rate, the plan will reduce the tax bill of thousands of small businesses and help to spur job and economic growth,” Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said in a statement.

The Associated Builders and Contractors also lauded the GOP-drafted framework. “The equivalent rate reduction envisioned in the framework for businesses on both sides of the code, paired with a broader tax base, moves toward ABC’s vision of fair treatment for all companies, regardless of size, structure or sector,” says ABC President and CEO Michael D. Bellaman.

在国会山，贝拉曼和其他人警告说，国会山还有很多工作。发布的框架只有9页长。将其放入详细的账单中可能需要数周的时间，即使没有更长的时间。

美国道路与运输建筑商协会高级副总裁戴夫·鲍尔（Dave Bauer）说：“这将是一个复杂过程的开始。”鲍尔说，他预计最终法案将有多次更改。

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions here,” says Steve Hall, American Council of Engineering Companies vice president of government affairs. “And that list gets longer the more we look and think about it.”

Bellaman says ABC doesn’t expect the package to be perfectly tailored for the construction industry. “We realize that there are going to be some things we wouldn’t prefer, but we are looking at it holistically,” he says. “We want to put more dollars in the pockets of our businesses and workforce.”

贝拉曼说，他的小组将与国会合作增加调整以使建筑业受益，例如允许529个大学资金进行贸易教育；授予灵活性，因此承包商可以在工作完成后缴税；并为公司提供奖励来帮助培养工人。他说：“我们认为，框架是一个很棒的第一步。”

In addition, the proposal would allow companies to expense all capital expenses for five years, a provision that Bauer says ARTBA supports.

While the proposal may be a work in progress, at least it is progress, many observers note. “It’s a step in an evolution process, and there’s going to be more steps in this process,” says Hall. “But if it means that the ball is now in Congress’s court to start to fill these details in and to try to assemble a package that can pass the House and pass in the Senate, that’s a good thing. We want this process to move forward.”