CCH Analyzes Obama Budget and Tax Plan

CCH has released a new tax briefing analyzing President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget and the tax ramifications of the President’s proposals.

Obama unveiled the budget Wednesday, proposing a number of tax reforms and changes in the calculation of tax brackets, Medicare and Social Security benefit increases (see Obama Budget Aims to Reform Taxes and Entitlements). The $3.77 billion fiscal year 2014 federal budget plan includes approximately 160 tax provisions, according to CCH, and a mix of individual and business tax propos¬als intended to raise revenue, reduce spend¬ing and encourage negotiations between the White House and the GOP on comprehen¬sive tax reform.

CCH’s Tax Briefing: Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Proposals, provides a summary and analysis of the proposal, as well as competing House and Senate proposals, which were released earlier.
The President’s proposal calls for a 28-percent cap on itemized deductions, a $3 million limit on tax-preferred retirement savings, a permanent research tax credit, a permanent American

Opportunity Tax Credit, a change in the taxation of carried interest, and more.
President Obama also provided for the first time specifics on the so-called Buffet Rule. Following release of the President’s FY 2014 budget recom¬mendations, the Treasury Department is¬sued its customary “Green Book,” describ¬ing the proposals.

“It’s important to note that all budgets now on the table—from the White House, the House and the Senate—put tax reform for¬ward as a principal theme,” said CCH principal federal tax analyst Mark Luscombe in a statement. “And while tax reform has become a very popular phrase in Washington lately, it also presents massive challenges be-fore a bipartisan path to enactment may be found.”

But, Luscombe added, the President’s budget plan also presents a significant cat¬alyst for compromise through which efforts toward finding a “simpler and fairer” system are shared by both parties.

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