Thomas Announces Hearing on Tax Reform

Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Committee will hold a hearing on tax reform. The hearing will take place on Wednesday, June 8, 2005, in the main Committee hearing room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include scholars from Columbia University, University of Michigan, University of California at Berkeley, and the Heritage Foundation. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.



BACKGROUND :

On January 7, 2005, President Bush established the Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. The Panel has been holding hearings throughout the country to solicit the opinions of leading experts, academics, and practitioners on reforming the tax code. Recognizing the burden imposed by the current Federal tax code in terms of compliance and growth incentives, the President's stated goal is to explore options to reform the tax code to make it simpler, fairer, and more pro-growth. The Panel shall report to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury by July 31, 2005.

More than 14,000 changes have been made to the tax code since the last major reform effort in 1986. The tax code imposes economic distortions that cost the U.S. economy as much as 50 cents for every additional dollar raised, and causes taxpayers to waste 3.2 billion hours and as much as $100 billion complying with an increasingly complex system.

The 2005 Economic Report of the President noted: "The current Federal tax system is unnecessarily complex and distorts incentives for work, savings, and investment. As a result, it imposes large burdens on taxpayers and on the U.S. economy as a whole in the form of high compliance costs and distortions in economic decisions."

In announcing the hearing, Chairman Thomas stated, "In anticipation of recommendations from the Treasury Secretary on tax reform, this hearing will be the first of several to inform Congress on the need for and benefits of reforming the current tax code."



FOCUS OF THE HEARING :

The focus of the hearing will be on attaining a broad overview of the principle economic objectives of tax reform with a focus on fairness, simplicity, and impacts on growth. In particular, the hearing will explore: 1) ways to make compliance and understanding of the tax code simpler for American workers and businesses, 2) economic distortions and incentives imposed by the tax code, and 3) various measures of tax burdens.



DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS :

Please Note: Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit for the hearing record must follow the appropriate link on the hearing page of the Committee website and complete the informational forms. From the Committee homepage, http://waysandmeans.house.gov/, select "109\th/ Congress" from the menu entitled, "Hearing Archives" (http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Hearings.asp?congress=17). Select the hearing for which you would like to submit, and click on the link entitled, "Click here to provide a submission for the record." Once you have followed the online instructions, completing all informational forms and clicking "submit" on the final page, an email will be sent to the address which you supply confirming your interest in providing a submission for the record. You MUST REPLY to the email and ATTACH your submission as a Word or WordPerfect document, in compliance with the formatting requirements listed below, by close of business Wednesday, June 22, 2005. Finally, please note that due to the change in House mail policy, the U.S. Capitol Police will refuse sealed-package deliveries to all House Office Buildings. For questions, or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-1721.



FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS :

The Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record. As always, submissions will be included in the record according to the discretion of the Committee. The Committee will not alter the content of your submission, but we reserve the right to format it according to our guidelines. Any submission provided to the Committee by a witness, any supplementary materials submitted for the printed record, and any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any submission or supplementary item not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

1. All submissions and supplementary materials must be provided in Word or WordPerfect format and MUST NOT exceed a total of 10 pages, including attachments. Witnesses and submitters are advised that the Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.

2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

3. All submissions must include a list of all clients, persons, and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears. A supplemental sheet must accompany each submission listing the name, company, address, telephone and fax numbers of each witness.

Note: All Committee advisories and news releases are available on the World Wide Web at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/

The Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to special accommodation needs in general (including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the Committee as noted above.