Breaux Reveals US Tax Panel May Achieve Consensus

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

03 October 2005

The Presidential Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform may well achieve a consensus on the contents of its report to simplify the US tax code, which is due to be released at the end of the month, according to Former US Senator John Breaux, (D-La), the panel's vice chairman.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires last week, Mr Breaux revealed that the panel has been examining "two or three" possibilities for tax reform, but added that it hasn't yet formally settled on one option.

However, he told Dow Jones that there is a good chance that the draft recommendations will be accepted by the panel members without a vote. "I hope we'll have a consensus," he stated.

The tax panel was initially due to report its findings in July, but given the enormity of the task in hand, the deadline was then postponed until the end of September. Following Hurricane Katrina, the panel has had to postpone two final meetings scheduled for September, at which panel members would have discussed their options before drawing up their proposals, and put back the final deadline until the end of next month.

"Their work is so foundational, so critical to where we wanted to go from here, that we wanted it to receive appropriate attention," Treasury Secretary John Snow was quoted as observing following a speech to McDonalds Corp last month.

The panel has said little so far about its conclusions, although in July it called for the elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax system. The commission members also indicated their preference for removing the minimum corporate tax as part of a broader overhaul of the corporate tax system, although it appears that no decisions have been made beyond repeal of the individual AMT.

Recommended