$75 billion firm wins carve-out in tax bill after lobbying push
Source: Washington Post
June 14, 2025 at 7:30 a.m. EDT
The tax bill before Congress would partially exempt the U.S. Virgin Islands from a law meant to crack down on tax havens, after a lobbying campaign by the territory’s government and a large private credit firm that stands to benefit from the measure.
Over the past three years, an affiliate of the credit giant Golub Capital paid a Washington firm more than $500,000 to urge Congress to relax a global minimum tax approved as part of the 2017 GOP tax law, lobbying disclosures show. The push was supported by the Virgin Islands’ governor and Democratic member of Congress. House Republicans included a bipartisan provision partially exempting the Virgin Islands from that law in the tax legislation they approved last month — a decision that has puzzled experts on both the left and right, who say it has little clear policy justification.
The Virgin Islands carve-out — estimated to cost taxpayers close to $1 billion over the next decade — has attracted scant attention as the Senate takes up the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill, President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority. The $2.4 trillion bill extends tax cuts for individual households approved in 2017 that are set to expire at the end of this year, preserving lower rates across income brackets. But some provisions would change arcane features with significant consequences for international taxation and the business sector.
Billionaire Lawrence Golub and his brother David Golub serve as the chief executive and president of Golub Capital, and have given about $2 million to federal campaigns since 2020, including more than $1.4 million to Republicans and conservative groups, according to data from the Federal Election Commission. The provision also has the support of several Democrats, though the party uniformly voted against the underlying legislation when it passed the House last month.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/14/gop-tax-virgin-islands/
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