Long Supports Pathway to Simpler, Fairer Tax Code

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Billy Long voted for the Pathway to Job Creation through a Simpler, Fairer Tax Code Act, which would fast-track long overdue reforms to our nation's broken tax code.

"Missouri families and businesses are demanding a tax code that is simpler and most of all fairer," Long said. "We need a tax code that stops Washington from raiding your paycheck and ensures you get to keep more of your hard-earned money."

The tax code reforms in the Pathway to Job Creation through a Simpler, Fairer Tax Code Act (H.R. 6169) have been included in the last two House-passed budget resolutions. The legislation requires the House and Senate to address reforming our nation's tax code, which includes the following tenets to a simpler and fairer tax code. The tax code reform efforts must include:

· Consolidating the individual income tax brackets into no more than two brackets;

· Reducing the corporate tax rate to not greater than 25 percent;

· Repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax;

· Broadening the tax base to maintain revenue between 18 and 19 percent of the economy; and

· Changing from a "worldwide" to a "territorial" system of taxation.

The Pathway to Job Creation through a Simpler, Fairer Tax Code Act lays out a fast-track process to comprehensive reform of the tax code. The House Ways and Means Committee will be required to introduce legislation which addresses the five tenets for a simpler, fairer tax code by April 30, 2013 and must report a bill out of committee by May 20, 2013. The House Rules Committee is required to produce a rule for consideration of the legislation by the full House in early June 2013. The Senate Finance Committee will consider the legislation in June 2013 and pass the bill out of the committee by early July 2013. The full Senate will consider the tax reform bill in July 2013. The legislation contains measures to facilitate a Conference Committee on the tax reform bill.

Long supports reforming the tax code, and the first bill he cosponsored in Congress was the Fair Tax (H.R. 25). The Fair Tax eliminates the Internal Revenue Service, the income tax, employment tax, and the death tax, and establishes a consumption-based tax.

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