We Want Ideas, Just Not Good Ones
Written by Brian Garst, Posted in Taxes
The White House blog informs us that the Tax Reform Subcommittee wants your ideas for tax reform!
President Obama has asked the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) to develop options for tax reform. The members of the tax subcommittee are preparing ideas to be considered by the board and would like to give anyone a chance to have input into the process on this important issue. Anyone wanting to share ideas and opinions for consideration by the subcommittee can do so here. The deadline for submissions is October 15th, 2009.
Sounds great! Until you reach this little caveat:
Note: The mandate to the PERAB is NOT to recommend a new tax system. They are to consider ideas on tax simplification, better enforcement of tax law, and reforming corporate taxes and to present the pros and cons of potential tax options. They were instructed not to consider options that involve raising taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year. So be mindful of their constraints when submitting ideas.
“We want your ideas, but only if they are actually the ideas we already have.”
So no FairTax, no flat tax, no taking a hatchet to the monstrosity of tax code. That would be too much change to hope for.