Trump Targets Obama-Era Tax Regulations With Three New Executive Actions

Donald Trump plans to unveil a major tax reform package on Wednesday, aiming to blunt criticism over a lack of legislative achievements and his refusal to release his own tax returns. The memos call for an examination of two specific areas of the Dodd-Frank law, according to the newspaper.

Mnuchin said earlier on Thursday that Treasury is working on tax reform "day and night" and will soon create a sweeping overhaul.

While the Trump administration is clearly focused on streamlining regulatory processes, on Thursday director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn also highlighted the importance of getting the right people into place at these departments: "changing personnel will have an effect on a lot of the regulation we have in the system", he said.

President Donald Trump, accompanied by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, gives a thumbs up as they walk at the Treasury Department in Washington, Friday, April 21, 2017.

Ryan has proposed replacing the 35 percent corporate income tax with the 20 percent border-adjusted tax on US companies' domestic sales and imports. Trump now appears not to be wedded to either his campaign plan or Ryan's plan. It brought sweeping changes to financial regulations, affecting both financial regulatory agencies and almost all parts of the US financial services industry.

The uproar over inversions dogged a number of transactions over the last five years, from Burger King's takeover of Canadian chain Tim Hortons to drugmaker AbbVie's planned acquisition of an Irish rival, Shire.

One thing that is generally agreed upon, by numerous people tracking tax reform, is that the White House will have to be the driving force behind a tax overhaul. Within a few months, Pfizer and Allergan surrendered and ended their agreement. A tax inversion is when a United States company whose value is based on intellectual property shifts its headquarters overseas to avoid high USA taxes without losing market access.

Administration officials have signaled they want to crack down on Wall Street, but some of the steps they have taken so far suggest they will be clearing back Wall Street regulations.

Mr. Trump also signed two presidential memoranda Friday ordering Treasury to review what he called "damaging" Dodd-Frank regulations and to review the impact of the law's "orderly liquidation authority (OLA)", which Republicans have called a bailout for big banks. Many banks have been hopeful that Congress will repeal the system. But many community banks have complained the regulations imposed too many burdens on them, and large banks have complained about what they see as excessive compliance costs that get in the way of lending.