The presidential panel appointed to examine options for reforming the United States' tax code is to delay the release of its final report until the end of October while Congress and the government focuses on the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery operation, Treasury Secretary John Snow revealed on Tuesday.
The tax panel, formed in the wake of President Bush's second election victory in November last year, and tasked with making recommendations for simplifying the tax system, 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 Huricane Katrina, the panel has had to postpone two final meetings scheduled for this month, 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," Snow was quoted as observing following a speech to McDonalds Corp.
Snow went on to acknowledge that whatever the panel's recommendations, opposition was likely from one quarter or another, particularly if the forthcoming report calls for the multitude of credits and other incentives, which tend to benefit certain industries and groups, to be swept away.
"Taking that stuff out means you're going up against a sizable number of people with an interest in keeping that stuff in there, and it's going to be one whale of a struggle," he observed.
The chairman of the tax panel, the former Floridian Senator Connie Mack, has set five goals for the panel when it reports its recommendations, including: simplifying tax filing procedures; promoting fairness and removing tax gimmicks; scrapping inefficient tax breaks and loopholes designed for special interests; encouraging savings and; removing barriers to competitiveness in American business.
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 panel has come to the consensus that we ought to repeal the AMT," Mack told reporters.
However, Mack conceded that the panel as yet has no clear idea on how to replace the $1.2 trillion in tax revenues that the AMT will bring in over the next ten years. Also, panel vice chairman, former Senator John Breaux (D - La) suggested that some form of alternative system must exist in the tax code to ensure that the wealthy can not get away with paying little or no tax.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.
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