Small Business Reading Room

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Federal Tax Reform Panel Will Consider H.R. 1601

Way back on January 7, 2005, President Bush announced the establishment of a bipartisan panel to advise on options to reform the tax code to make it simpler, fairer, and more pro-growth to benefit all Americans. Last week, the panel announced they will be meeting for the eighth time.
The meeting is open to the public:

National Transportation Safety Board Conference Center Auditorium, 429 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC 20594, on Wednesday, May 11th (yesterday) and Thursday, May 12th at 9:30 a.m.

The meeting held yesterday focused on specific options for tax reform and the May 12th meeting today will focus on business tax reform proposals.
Of particular interest to me is a proposal by Pennsylvania's own Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA). The Transform America Transaction Fee proposal (H.R. 1601)calls for the elimination of all federal taxes on individuals and businesses replacing it with a fee on all transactions.

It's not a sales and use tax, and it is not a VAT tax like the ones commonly used in Europe.

Call it a "transaction tax".

Fees could be assessed as a percentage of the transaction, or as a flat or tiered fee per transaction.

Granted that nothing is perfect, but the complete elimination of income, payroll, corporate profits and capital gains taxes sounds pretty darn good to me.

Whether you agree or disagree, let the President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform know how you feel and post a comment about the proposal on their website.

posted by Unknown at 8:16 AM - permalink 3 comments

3 Comments:

Any proposal that puts the government tax scheme in one place is a good proposal. We should all be able to see exactly where our taxes are collected.

Replacement of the income tax is a good thing too, but we should be careful of adding a VAT (Value Added Tax). They are by their nature not transparent. The purchaser of a good or service does not see how much is taxed.

By Larry, at 1:38 PM

Why is the word "scheme" such a good one when it comes to talking about taxes? :)

By Anonymous, at 8:31 PM

Scheme is a good word for any activity that coercively relieves the populace of their money in an organized but complicated way.

And I think we all know they are taking more than is necessary to fulfill the legitimate functions of government.

By Larry, at 8:07 AM