Snow Won't Be Held To Artificial Timetable On Tax Reform

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

09 December 2005

Amid reports that the Bush administration's push to reform the United States tax code will be postponed by a year until 2007, Treasury Secretary John Snow stated this week that government will not be held to an "artificial timetable" with regard to tax reform.

"We will be looking hard at the whole question of tax reform," Snow told reporters in Washington D.C.

"I don't want to foreshadow what we will be recommending to the president," added the Treasury Secretary, who is charged with presenting a tax reform plan to President Bush based on the tax reform advisory panel's proposals, which were released last month.

Mr Snow's words would appear to confirm reports citing influential Republicans earlier in the week which indicated that the White House is in no immediate hurry to release proposals for simplifying the US tax code, because there is insufficient time or resources for their inclusion in President Bush's State of the Union address in January. It is also thought that there will be little political stomach for radical tax proposals during a mid-term election year.

Mr Snow was keen to focus on more pressing legislative issues, and echoed the President's call for Congress to ensure that a number of temporary tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 are extended to maintain the momentum of economic growth.

"It's awfully important we don't have a tax increase," Snow stated.

"Lower tax rates will create jobs, lower tax rates will create a platform for a growing and expanding America," he argued.

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