Obama Plans to Name Task Force to Overhaul Tax Code

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama plans to name a task force to review and overhaul the U.S. tax code, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget said today.

Obama will ask the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, for a top- to-bottom review of the 96-year-old law in an effort to “rebalance the federal tax code,” spokesman Tom Gavin said in an interview.

“The goal is a tax system that works better for the American people,” Gavin said. “The president’s going to ask the board that they find ways to simplify the tax code, protect progressivity in the revenue base, close tax loopholes and find ways to reduce tax evasion and that they reduce corporate welfare.”

Austan Goolsbee, the president’s senior economic adviser, will be named staff director of the tax-review panel. Members of the panel will include Harvard’s Martin Feldstein, former chief economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan; Laura D’Andrea Tyson, professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley and former economic adviser to President Bill Clinton; Roger Ferguson, chief executive of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve; and William Donaldson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A date for the formation of the task force hasn’t been decided, Gavin said.

Restrictions

Obama plans to ask Volcker, Goolsbee and the panel for a package of recommendations to be on his desk Dec. 4. That would leave enough time for decisions to be made and included as proposals in the White House budget for fiscal 2011, to be submitted to Congress in February 2010.

There will be two restrictions imposed on the tax review task force, Gavin said. There should be no increase in taxes on families earning less than $250,000 per year, and taxes should not be increased in 2009 or 2010, he said.

Continuing the tax cut beyond 2010 “remains a major pillar of the president’s budget,” Gavin said.

The review panel will be charged with consulting “a pretty wide range of tax-policy experts and other public voices” before recommendations are made to the president, Gavin said.

The tax-review plan comes as Obama faces opposition in his own party as he pushes for approval of a $3.6 trillion budget that Republican critics say would pile a mountain of debt on taxpayers for years to come.

Capitol Hill

The president scheduled a meeting with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill today to persuade them to back his long- range plans for an overhaul of health care, energy programs and education to revive the U.S. economy.

House and Senate lawmakers are struggling to work on the 2010 non-binding spending blueprint amid a worsening deficit. Lawmakers are tentatively scaling back on some domestic programs, including curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Senator Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who heads the Budget Committee, has drafted a spending plan to generate a smaller deficit than Obama’s plan, with next year’s shortfall totaling $1.2 trillion. Obama’s budget would generate a $1.4 trillion deficit next year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Conrad’s plan deletes an Obama budget proposal that called for $250 billion to aid the banking industry. His plan pledges to reduce the deficit from a forecast $1.7 trillion this year to $508 billion in 2014.

Tax credits, under the “Making Work Pay” program, which lead to $400 tax cuts for most workers and $800 to couples, would expire at the end of 2010.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home

[Ban Hammer 14,147]

[Peikko 1,575]

It's a very good idea, to overhaul the tax system and see where changes can be made. Don't worry Charles, you are not in any tax bracket that is likely to feel the pinch. Unless you are a tax cheat?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

From what I saw in the news conference (and the campaign debates before that) his proposals for reforming the tax code were pretty explicit.

The only people who are paying more taxes (via letting the Bush tax cuts expire) are the top 5% earners. Everyone else is getting tax relief because their incomes remained more or less flat during the time the economy was booming, while the cost of living was steadily increasing.

[The_Dude 1,142]

The problem with overhauling or even tweaking the tax code is that there is a lot of people in the financial world with a vested interest in maintaining current tax laws and accounting standards. Depending on how drastically they plan on changing it, a lot of people will have to go back to university to re-learn new accounting standards and practices. They should just go to a flat tax. So much easier, and fewer acccountants

[Ban Hammer 14,147]

It's a very good idea, to overhaul the tax system and see where changes can be made. Don't worry Charles, you are not in any tax bracket that is likely to feel the pinch. Unless you are a tax cheat?

likely being the operative word there. save the silly questions, mkay?

[Peikko 1,575]

Silly questions are the only ones you ever respond to, why should I save them?

[Ban Hammer 14,147]

Silly questions are the only ones you ever respond to, why should I save them?

but silly questions are all you seem to ask.........

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

It's a very good idea, to overhaul the tax system and see where changes can be made. Don't worry Charles, you are not in any tax bracket that is likely to feel the pinch. Unless you are a tax cheat?

So typical. 'Don't worry' because someone else is getting punished. People in the highest tax brackets already pay more than their 'fair' share.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Noone is getting "punished". A set of (frankly unjustified) tax cuts are being allowed to expire for the top tier earners is all.

If anything the middle classes are the ones who have been punished - for years now - by their wages remaining relatively flat despite huge increases in the cost of living.

[HAL 9000 96]

Working off of that... wankers will b!tch about top-tier earners 'paying more than their FAIR share' while not really mentioning that the earning isn't exactly a FAIR SHARE of the total salary pool. #### that.

[Ban Hammer 14,147]

It's a very good idea, to overhaul the tax system and see where changes can be made. Don't worry Charles, you are not in any tax bracket that is likely to feel the pinch. Unless you are a tax cheat?

So typical. 'Don't worry' because someone else is getting punished. People in the highest tax brackets already pay more than their 'fair' share.

apparently the unspoken lesson is - as long as robin hood ain't robbing you, it's nothing to be concerned about.

[HAL 9000 96]

Right cause rich folks making 1 Billion USD per year are so victimized by having their post-tax income reduced by pennies on the dollar. Poor people.

[Ban Hammer 14,147]

Right cause rich folks making 1 Billion USD per year are so victimized by having their post-tax income reduced by pennies on the dollar. Poor people.

exaggerate much?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

It's a very good idea, to overhaul the tax system and see where changes can be made. Don't worry Charles, you are not in any tax bracket that is likely to feel the pinch. Unless you are a tax cheat?

So typical. 'Don't worry' because someone else is getting punished. People in the highest tax brackets already pay more than their 'fair' share.

apparently the unspoken lesson is - as long as robin hood ain't robbing you, it's nothing to be concerned about.

A conservative cares if his neighbor is robbed, a liberal doesn't.... because it ain't him!!!