Tax Plan

Here's a follow-up on Bush's tax commission, for which part of the mandate is to come up with something to help stop the crush from the alternative minimum tax (AMT), taken from The Atlantic Online:

JULY 31 [Blogger's note: The following is to happen on this date]

Revamping the Tax Code

A group impaneled by President Bush must unveil its recommendations by today for reforming the federal tax code, which numbers more than 60,000 pages and by some estimates costs Americans 6.6 billion hours and $140 billion in prep time every year. Headed by the flat-tax advocate and former senator Connie Mack, the panel looked closely at consumption taxes (a federal value-added or sales tax) and a flat tax on income. Most advisers to the panel, including Alan Greenspan, favor a hybrid system, one that would continue the administration's quiet effort to exempt all savings and investment from taxation. (Scrapping the progressive income tax and popular exemptions all at once is considered politically unfeasible.) Congress will deliberate on the recommendations in the fall at the earliest, with action expected next year.

As I mentioned last time, this is an issue that will affect a lot more taxpayers than it has in the past, and you, dear gentle reader, maybe one of those affected so you want to be paying attention to this one.