US Senate Finance Committee's Grassley Announces Hearing on Tax Simplification

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-news.com, Washington

20 April 2001

Demonstrating his commitment to simplifying the US tax code, Senate Finance Committe Chair Charles E Grassley, R-Iowa, said yesterday that the committee plans to hold a hearing next week entitled " Tax Code Complexity: New Hope For Fresh Solutions', which it's hoped will give rise to a fresh debate on the subject.

The hearing, scheduled for April 26, will be a welcome development for a number of US groups currently complaining that the existing Internal Revenue Code is too complicated, even for tax practitioners. Carol Markman, chair of the National Conference of CPA Practitioners Tax Policy Committee, recently testified before the Senate Finance Committe, saying that the Code was too complex and phase-outs should be eliminated. She said: 'The tax code is so complex and provides for so many phase-outs and deductions, that even a seasoned tax professional cannot sit down with a pencil, paper and calculator and prepare many tax returns or tax projections without the assistance of many charts and schedules.'

In a press release revealing details of the impending hearing, the Senate Finance Committee was in full agreement: 'As any taxpayer knows, the tax code is excessively complex,' it said. 'Millions of Americans spend hours struggling over tax forms. Professional help and do-it-yourself tax software costs billions of dollars. Taxpayers exhaust their patience and their resources simply trying to comply with the law.'

Senator Grassley wants to put an end to this. He believes Congress must make the tax code more simple and more fair for taxpayers at all income levels. The hearing is intended to "jump start the debate on tax simplification" and will feature the release of a "much-anticipated, congressionally mandated study on simplification from the Joint Committee on Taxation."

Witnesses will include Lindy Paull, chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation, and representatives of organisations including the American Bar Association (Taxation Section), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Tax Executives Institute and the National Association of Enrolled Agents.

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