Snow Awaits Nod By Bush to Write Tax-Revision Plan

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary John Snow, who will receive the report of a tax-reform panel Tuesday, is waiting for President Bush’s go ahead to turn the recommendations into a far-reaching administrative proposal at the start of next year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"We can pull the recommendations together rather quickly," Snow said in an interview with The Journal. "It is not as if tax reform is a new subject to the Treasury."

Snow stopped short of promising a proposal but emphasized the president's interest, the paper reported. He also suggested that administration officials, disappointed by the failure of the president's Social Security proposal, are thinking not only about tax reform, but also political strategy.

If tax reform is done "well" -- which he defined as "producing a result ... not a well-thought-through proposal in an academic sense" -- "you get something done in the end," he said. "We want to pull together a set of proposals here that will have the capacity to enjoy broad public support and ultimately ... the Congress of the United States."

The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, which has been working with Treasury staff for months, meets Monday by conference call to finalize its support for two alternatives to the tax code, the paper reported.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 10/31/05