Raytheon CEO Sees $1 Billion Blow, R&D Risk, From Biden Tax Plan

(Bloomberg) -- Raytheon Technologies Corp. Chief Executive Officer Greg Hayes predicted a $1 billion blow for the company from President Joe Biden’s push to overhaul the U.S. tax code.

The higher tax bill would threaten Raytheon’s $5 billion in annual spending on capital and research and development, Hayes said Wednesday in a virtual interview with Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein. Hayes is also the chair of the Business Roundtable’s tax and fiscal policy committee.

“It means I have to reduce my investment budget by about 20%,” Hayes said in the interview, which was sponsored by the Economic Club of Washington. “I’m not sure that’s exactly what the president wants to have us do.”

The warning from the maker of jet engines and missiles anticipates the coming showdown between big companies and the new administration as Biden seeks to revamp the corporate-tax code. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the proposed overhaul would bolster the tax take by about $2.5 trillion over 15 years and pay for an eight-year spending initiative aimed at infrastructure, green investments and social programs.

“It’s a pretty simple discussion,” Hayes told Rubenstein. “If you want U.S. companies to invest in technology and innovation, you have to have incentives to do that here in the United States.”

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