Politicians, groups step up tax law messaging for Tax Day

Elected officials and outside groups are marking Tuesday’s tax-filing deadline by stepping up their messaging efforts over the new tax law.

Tuesday is the due date for people to file their 2017 tax returns, the last returns they’ll file under the old tax code.

Supporters of the tax law are touting the benefits of the new measure, arguing that the new code allows people to keep more of their money and makes the U.S. business climate more competitive. But opponents are calling attention to the new law’s large benefits for corporations and the wealthy.

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The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is launching a new campaign on Tuesday, called “Keeping Our Promise,” in which manufacturers will give testimonials about how the new law is helping their companies and employees. The campaign will include digital advertising ahead of the midterm elections and will build on events that the group has started to hold with GOP lawmakers about the tax cuts.

The first business that the NAM is highlighting in its campaign is Ariel Corporation in Ohio, which makes gas compressors. The company is planning to offer raises this year of up to 4.25 percent in 2018, which is on top of 13 percent wage increases the company gave last year even before the tax bill was enacted.

The NAM had pushed for a tax overhaul for years, arguing it would help manufacturers make new investments and boost jobs and wages.

The new campaign “shows that we’re doing exactly what we said we would do,” said Chris Netram, vice president for tax and domestic economic policy at the NAM.

Other groups supporting the tax law are also bolstering their campaigning as the filing deadline approaches.

For example, the American Action Network, a group closely aligned with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), announced that they are spending $1 million on new television and digital advertising to highlight the tax cuts. The ads, which highlight the new law’s lower rates and larger standard deduction and child credit, will run in 30 Republican-held tax districts that could be competitive in the midterms.

GOP lawmakers and Trump administration officials are also focusing on the new tax law in honor of Tax Day.

President Trump on Monday spoke at a roundtable in Florida about the tax law, blasting the state’s Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, for being “hostile to it.” Nelson is one of 10 Democratic senators up for reelection this year in states that Trump won.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are scheduled to tout the tax law’s benefits for individuals at an event in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

Ryan and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) are expected to talk about the tax law Tuesday morning on cable television stations, and Brady wrote an op-ed in USA Today touting the new law.

“While we are in the midst of this year’s frustrating tax season, filing under the old, broken tax code, things look bright for next year,” Brady wrote. “That’s because we now have a new tax code that puts families first and allows for a true revival of American innovation, dynamism and economic growth.”

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers and liberal groups are using Tax Day to make the case against the new law.

Senate Democrats released a video Monday that argues that most of the benefits of the tax cuts so far have largely gone to corporations and wealthy shareholders. They also released a report finding that corporations have announced more than $250 billion in stock buybacks this year.

“As millions of Americans finish preparing their taxes, corporate executives are laughing all the way to the bank thanks to the Republican tax bill,” Senate Democrats wrote in the report.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other Democratic lawmakers are slated to speak out against the new law on Tuesday at an event outside the U.S. Capitol hosted by Tax March and Not One Penny.

The progressive organizations also held events across the country over the weekend, and Not One Penny has put up billboards around the country highlighting the tax breaks that lawmakers are estimated to get from the new law’s deduction for pass-through business income.