Senate Unveil Tax Reform Bill
Senate Finance Committee members Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., on February 23 unveiled a broad tax reform proposal that they say would create a simpler and fairer system by lowering tax rates and eliminating narrow tax breaks that benefit special interests. The plan would also simplify tax returns into a one-page Form 1040.
The most significant individual provisions of the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Bill of 2010 would reduce the number of income tax brackets from six to three –15 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent –increase the amounts of the standard deduction, eliminate the alternative minimum tax and allow an exclusion for capital gains. On the business side, the proposal would establish a single corporate income tax rate of 24 percent and allow a simplified cash flow accounting for businesses with gross receipts of less than $1 million per year.