JCT Report Outlines Comments to House Tax Reform Working Groups

On May 6, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) published a report in response to the work conducted by the 11 Ways and Means (W&M) Committee Tax Reform Working Groups. The mission of each working group was to review current law in its designated area, research relevant issues, and compile related feedback from stakeholders, academics and think tanks, practitioners, the general public, and colleagues in the House of Representatives. Ways and Means Committee members conducted private bipartisan meetings on May 8 to further examine some of the working group issues, followed by a similar meeting May 17 to cover the rest of the landscape. The committee sessions come on top of meetings the Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have been convening with rank-and-file GOP lawmakers on tax reform, as key Republicans try to build support and keep the conversation going on Capitol Hill. The JCT pamphlet is 560 pages of proposed policy summarization without any policy endorsements. There are no revenue estimates associated with the report. The document provides an exhaustive description of present law (e.g. entities, rates, thresholds, limitations), then goes on to summarize 12 tax reform proposals from Simpson-Bowles, Sens. Wyden-Coats, Rep. Woodall, Think Tanks, etc. (on the areas of individual/corporate rates, payroll taxes, estate and excise taxes). The final portion highlights the feedback received by the 11 various working groups. There are no names of outside groups connected to the working group comments; rather generalizations of certain provisions that are supported or where there may be areas of concern without further explanation). The report can be downloaded from the JCT website here. Comments to the W&M Working Groups can be located here. For more information, please contact Brian Lenihan at (202) 547-4733 or lenihanb@agc.org.