The President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform will get an additional two months to complete its work.
The White House amended the executive order creating the panel to give the group until Sept. 30, 2005, to complete its work. The original deadline was July 31, 2005.
The panel will present Treasury Secretary John Snow with a report that includes revenue-neutral policy options for reforming the Internal Revenue Code. Those options are supposed to simplify federal tax laws to reduce the costs and the administrative burden of compliance, and to include at least one option that uses the federal income tax as the base for its recommended reforms.
In a statement, panel chairman Connie Mack and vice-chairman John Breaux said, "We were on track to issue our report by July 31st. Nevertheless, we are comfortable taking additional time to complete our work. We look forward to issuing our recommendations in September and giving this important presidential priority the full public debate and dialogue that it deserves."
Mack and Breaux noted that, since its creation in January, the panel has held nine meetings, heard testimony from nearly 90 witnesses, and received more than 4,300 written comments.
