AICPA Recommends Tax Reforms to Senate Finance Committee

The American Institute of CPAs  has sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee recapping its recommendations on tax reform as the committee moves closer to drafting a tax reform bill.

The recommendations were submitted following a request by Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to their Senate colleagues to submit their ideas about what should be included in the legislation (see Senate Finance Leaders Offer Blank-Slate Approach to Tax Reform).

“We understand that you have requested input from your colleagues as you move forward on comprehensive tax reform,” wrote AICPA Tax Executive Committee chair Jeffrey A. Porter in the letter. “Specifically, you have asked what tax expenditures should be included in a reformed tax code, as well as other provisions that should be added, repealed, or revised as part of tax reform. The AICPA is actively pursuing or has published positions on a number of tax reform issues, developed a ten-principle framework for analyzing proposals, and is available to assist you in this process. While we believe that taking a thorough and substantive review of each and every expenditure is an essential part of tax reform, we also encourage you to examine other aspects of the tax code to improve the current rules.  We stand for a code that is simple, practical, and administrable.”

The letter highlighted the following areas that the AICPA has targeted for inclusion in tax reform legislation:

• Repeal of the alternative minimum tax;
• Simplification of the “Kiddie Tax;”
• Consolidation and simplification of multiple types of tax-favored retirement plans;
• Harmonization of education incentives;

• Reordering of due dates for certain tax returns;
• Reform of civil tax penalties; and

• Modification of existing rules to allow taxpayers to report de minimis changes in their income from a corrected Form 1099 or amended Schedule K-1 in the year of receipt of the amended form.

Porter underscored the AICPA’s Compendium of Legislative Proposals that focuses on provisions in the tax code that need attention, but are of a technical nature and perhaps can be simply addressed, and the AICPA’s 10 guiding principles of good tax policy to analyze proposals to change a tax rule as described in a tax policy concept statement issued by the AICPA.

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