Congress Reviews Tax Reform Suggestions

Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation has released a report summarizing various provisions of the Tax Code and suggestions that were sent to House Ways and Means Committee working groups tasked with various aspects of tax reform.

In February, Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., and ranking member Sander Levin, D-Mich., announced the formation of 11 tax reform working groups on the committee. The mission of each working group was to review current law in its designated area, research relevant issues, and compile related feedback from stakeholders, academics and think tanks, practitioners, the general public, and colleagues in the House.

This report released Monday was  prepared by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation and provides an overview of the Tax Code in effect for 2013 and provides a more detailed description of the Code provisions relevant to the topic area of each working group. The document also summarizes the suggestions for reform and other commentary submitted by the public to the various working groups through http://waysandmeans.house.gov/taxreform/workinggroups.htm.

In addition, at the request of Camp and Levin, the document briefly summarizes a selection of proposals to reform the federal tax system that members of Congress, commissions, and others have presented to policy makers over the past several years.

"Over the past two-plus months the Joint Committee on Taxation has worked tirelessly alongside Ways and Means Committee Members of the 11 Tax Reform Working Groups,” Camp and Levin said in a joint statement Monday. “The release of today’s report reflects the hard work of Members and staff.  This document provides an important and comprehensive overview of the tax code, an overview of some of the most commonly referenced previous tax reform proposals and summarizes the views of more than 1,300 submissions offered to the Ways and Means Committee by key stakeholders. The committee will dig into its details over the coming weeks.”

Public comments were accepted through April 15, 2013. To view the comments that were submitted, click here.

Camp has also been meeting on a weekly basis with his counterpart in the Senate, Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. The Senate Finance Committee has also released a series of reports summarizing tax reform proposals in various areas (see Senators Lay out Tax Reform Options and Consider Re-imposing Tax Preparer Regulation).

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