Major corporations are arming for a brawl over overseas tax breaks that could be the year’s biggest clash between business and the White House.

“We’re going to spend whatever it takes,” said Brigitte Schmidt Gwyn, senior director of congressional relations for the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of the nation’s largest companies.

Obama last week announced a “Leveling the Playing Field” plan aimed at overseas tax shelters and other provisions that he calls loopholes for corporations. Combined with other international tax reforms planned by the administration, the crackdown would raise $210 billion over 10 years.

These were the observations written in the Politico.  They also gave us a list of tactics to watch for in the coming battle.

1. Start immediately.

The big companies that would be affected by Obama’s proposed changes have already closed ranks. He revealed his plan in his budget proposal in late March, and a group of about 200 trade associations and U.S.-based multinational firms immediately formed the Promote America’s Competitive Edge coalition. Members range from McDonald’s to computer maker Dell and financial services giant Prudential.

2. Emphasize the economy.

The main thrust of the business argument is that Obama’s proposed changes would be bad for an ailing economy. The companies argue that, contrary to Obama’s contention that multinationals use the targeted provisions to ship jobs overseas, being competitive abroad allows them to create more jobs here at home.

3. Go local.

The coalition’s lobbying strategy aims to localize the fear of job losses by having companies reach out to home-state senators and representatives. After that, the companies branch out to lawmakers from states where they have employees.

4. Go bigger.

Another message PACE members are stressing on the Hill is that any changes to deferral should happen only in the context of a broader rewrite of the tax code. What the lobbyists don’t say is that Congress is highly unlikely to undertake fundamental tax reform anytime soon. Not only are lawmakers strapped with an already ambitious legislative agenda, but the recession means there’s no extra money to smooth out the rough spots that such a major rewrite would inevitably produce.

Now we have the tactics that will be used and it will be interesting to see how they use each one of them.  I will be keeping a scorecard .

Will Obama have his way or will there be a cave to the businesses?  My money is on the cave.