Congressman Camp's Tax Reform Act of 2014 Discussion Draft

 

As promised, Congressman Camp, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, released his tax reform plan - the Tax Reform Act of 2014, today.  There is legislative language which helps to see exactly what the proposal is. In addition, there is a summary and an explanation of the rationale. In addition, the Joint Committee on Taxation released 11 documents that explain key parts and provide revenue estimates, a distributional analysis and a macroeconomic analysis.

I'm still digging into it, but a few quick observations:

• They estimate that this reform will grow the economy. For example, the press release states that 1.8 million new private sector jobs will be created and the "average middle-class family of four could have an extra $1,400 per year in its pocket from the combination of lower tax rates in the plan and higher wages due to a stronger economy."
• Individual tax rates would be 10% and 25%. There would be an additional 10% surtax for individuals with income over $450,000 (MFJ). Capital gains and dividends would be taxed at the same rate as other income, but there is a 40% exclusion.
• The top corporate tax rate would drop from 35% to 25%, phased in.
• The individual and corporate AMT would be repealed.
• A variety of tax preferences would be eliminated or cut back for both individuals and corporations.
• The research tax credit would be modified and made permanent. Yet, the deduction for R&D would be cutback in that all such costs (which would specifically include software development costs) would be expensed over five years (rather than expensed in the year incurred).
• Various administrative proposals are offered to improve efficiency and reduce the tax gap.

More later.

There are a lot of documents. I created a 1-page pdf with all of the links - here.

What do you think?