Bush Gives Panel Six Months to Recommend Tax Changes

NEW YORK -- President Bush gave a nine-member panel of former lawmakers and business owners six months to devise ways to make the U.S. tax code simpler and less of a burden for Americans and the economy, Bloomberg News reported Friday.

Bush, who signed into law five tax cuts totaling more than $1.85 trillion during his first term, says the 3,000-page tax code is too complex and discourages savings. Setting up the panel headed by former Sens. Connie Mack and John Breaux is his first step toward meeting a campaign pledge to streamline the system. He gave the panel until July 31 to report.

“This is an essential task for our country and it's a task that will treat our taxpayers more fairly,'' Bush said Friday at an Oval Office ceremony introducing Mack as chairman and Breaux as vice chairman of the panel. “I am firm in my desire to get something done.''

The committee will examine options such as eliminating some tax deductions and using the revenue gained to reduce tax rates, or a more radical shift to flat-rate, national sales or value- added tax systems that shift the base of taxes to consumption from income.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 1/7/05