The Republican Party approved its 2008 platform containing several planks related to tax cuts and tax policy.

The platform comes out firmly against tax hikes. "Because the problem is too much spending, not too few taxes, we support a supermajority requirement in both the House and Senate to guard against tax hikes," said the platform.

The platform also calls for doubling the exemption for dependents  from $3,500 to $7,000 to help families hit by the economic downturn. It advocates repeal of the alternative minimum tax and vows to continue the fight against the "death tax." It says the Research and Development Tax Credit should be made permanent.

The platform also notes that Republicans support tax credits for health care and medical expenses. Republican candidate John McCain (pictured), R-Ariz., supports a refundable tax credit of $2,500 for single individuals and $5,000 for couples with a qualifying health insurance policy. The credit would replace the current tax rule that excludes employer payments for health insurance from employees' taxable incomes, according to an op-ed piece by two McCain economic advisers in The Wall Street Journal.

The Republican Party platform pushes for a "major reduction in the corporate tax rate." It says the Tax Code should promote more incentives for savings. "We support a plan to encourage employers to offer automatic enrollment in tax-deferred savings programs," said the document. "The current limits on tax-free savings accounts should be removed."

The platform calls for simplifying the Tax Code and, by way of transition, "giving all taxpayers the option of filing under current rules or under a two-rate flat tax with generous deductions for families."

The platform also supports the tax-free status of religious organizations, charities and "fraternal benevolent societies," and envisions the possible repeal of the federal income tax: "In any fundamental restructuring of federal taxation, to guard against the possibility of hypertaxation of the American people, any value-added tax or national sales tax must be tied to simultaneous repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, which established the federal income tax."