UPDATE 3-U.S. corporate tax hikes likely delayed

* Corporate tax proposals likely part of major overhaul

* Timing unclear given crowded agenda

* U.S. House, Senate want top corporate rate lowered

* Value-added tax gaining support as deficits mount
(Adds growing support for value added tax, deficit context)

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama
remains committed to ending "unfair loopholes" and tax breaks
for international corporations, but congressional tax writers
and others doubt that will happen without broader reforms, such
as cutting the top corporate tax rate.

Obama ignited fear in corporate America earlier this year
when he proposed about $200 billion in tax increases over a
decade through tightening corporate tax rules for multinational
companies, mostly related to offshore profits.

A White House spokeswoman on Tuesday said the president is
committed to those proposals, commenting on a front-page
article in The Wall Street Journal that said the Obama
administration had shelved the plan.

"While we have an open door to the ideas and concerns of
business leaders, we remain as committed to reforming
international corporate taxation to end unfair loopholes as we
were the day the president announced the plan," said White
House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

U.S. lawmakers and tax experts say the plan to crack down
on corporate taxes never had a chance on its own, given
opposition from chairmen of several key congressional
committees.

Marc Gerson, a former House Ways and Means Committee
staffer, said lawmakers, guided by the efforts of the business
community, recognized these as fundamental changes.

"To the extent that they are considered at all, it will be
considered as part of a larger consideration of reforming the
international tax rules," said Gerson, who now councils
corporate clients at Miller & Chevalier in Washington.

Obama's crowded legislative agenda -- which includes
reforming U.S. healthcare, obtaining stricter financial
services regulation and capping greenhouse gas emissions --
means any tax proposals are unlikely to move forward until
2010.

The House Ways and Means Committee is working on a broader
plan to overhaul the tax code, which would include many of
Obama's ideas and cut the top corporate rate.

The U.S. has among the highest corporate tax rates in the
world at 35 percent. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles
Rangel, a Democrat, is looking at lowering the rate to 28
percent, or even lower.

"He is willing to go even lower if others come forward with
loopholes to close," Rangel spokesman Matt Beck said.

A Republican tax aide said the administration has realized
that raising business taxes is easier said than done.

"It looks like good business tax reform policy might be
trumping the easy politics of raising taxes on business to pay
for enlarging already unsustainable social programs," he said.

BIGGER IDEAS NEEDED?

Some mainstream economists had said that Obama's proposals
on their own were unlikely to create U.S. jobs. Some even
suggested they could cause companies to be acquired by foreign
rivals, an argument of the business community.

Many argue there is not enough money in the corporate and
individual income taxes to control widening budget deficits
projected for the foreseeable future.

A growing number of economists and others are speaking in
favor of value-added, or national sales tax, which is employed
in many industrialized countries.

Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve Chairman who is
heading an economic advisory panel charged with giving tax
reform advice to Obama, has suggested a VAT be considered.

"The inescapable truth is that deficits will grow unless
taxes increase," wrote Brookings Institution economists Henry
Aaron and Isabel Sawhill, in a Washington Post editorial on
Tuesday.

The two economists from the center-left leaning think tank
suggest a VAT be enacted only after unemployment falls, or
after a certain period of time. They propose that the funds
raised be used to get a handle on healthcare spending, which
has risen at double the rate of inflation in recent years.

The conservative Heritage Foundation, which opposes a VAT,
estimates that just a one percent VAT on all goods and services
could raise $63 billion a year.

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(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Gerald E.
McCormick and Tim Dobbyn)