The Treasury Department is preparing to release a corporate tax workaround that would deliver large tax savings to companies including Salesforce Inc. and Qualcomm Inc.
The tax guidance, which could come as early as next week, would allow companies to take full advantage of lucrative research and development tax breaks included in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful” tax bill, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Treasury proposal will address an issue that has vexed major corporations and their Washington lobbyists for months: a Biden-era 15% minimum tax on companies earning at least $1 billion prevents businesses from fully claiming those R&D deductions.
The guidance will fix those concerns from the business sector, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss something that has not yet been made public. The R&D tax breaks — along with Treasury’s planned changes — are especially valuable to research-intensive businesses, including in tech, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.
The Treasury did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier: Lucrative Trump Tax Break for Tech, Pharma Hits Biden-Era Snag
The timing of the Treasury guidance release could slip, one of the people cautioned, noting that it is in the final stages of review.
Trump’s tax bill allows companies to claim retroactive R&D deductions — estimated to be worth $67 billion. But that change was so generous that it would trigger the 15% minimum tax for a wide swath of companies.
Airbnb Inc., Broadcom Inc. and Applied Materials Inc. are among companies that have disclosed in regulatory filings that their super-sized deduction could trigger the 15% corporate alternative minimum tax or prevent them from claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits related to past payment of the minimum tax.
The tax guidance is the latest win for large corporations and would provide additional tax benefits to companies on top of the tax incentives they won in Trump’s tax bill which passed Congress in July. That bill restored full, upfront deductions of R&D investments, which had lapsed in 2022.
