Congress

The final tax bill offers much of what large companies hoped to gain from the Republican overhaul: the billboard corporate rate was knocked down, cuts were accelerated and key credits were preserved.

Two percentage points are generating a big tussle in the debate over the right corporate tax rate.

As House and Senate lawmakers continue hashing out differences between their tax-overhaul bills, the prospect lingers that they could push the new corporate tax rate to 22%.

Technology, banking and other industries mounted a new round of lobbying Monday to save a wide range of tax breaks following the last-minute switch in the federal tax overhaul by the U.S. Senate.

Multinational corporations have a lot to like in both the House and Senate tax-overhaul proposals. Depending on a company’s structure and operations, there could be a lot to worry about as well.

WASHINGTON—While lawmakers in the House and Senate craft dueling versions of tax-overhaul legislation, battling over corporate tax rates and rules for overseas income, corporate chiefs at a gathering across town are sweating some of the smaller stuff.

OMAHA, Neb.—In the parking lot outside Elliott Equipment Co.’s manufacturing plant here last month, more than a hundred employees gathered in front of a banner-bedecked truck, its raised boom flying an American flag 30 feet overhead, to hear from the company’s chief executive and the local congressman.

After years of steep underfunding, pension plans are now healthy, thanks to several years of double-digit investment gains and rising interest rates, separate studies from benefits consultants suggest.

Until recently, executive deferred-compensation plans largely escaped scrutiny by regulators. That changed after Enron Corp. filed for bankruptcy late last year, and court documents showed that some Enron executives had withdrawn millions of dollars from their accounts just before the Chapter 11 filing.