Ways and Means pushes for tax reform in House budget

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are pushing to ensure that tax reform plays a central part in the upcoming House budget. 

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and the other Republicans on the tax-writing panel told Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that they intend to pass a reform plan that would both simplify the code and spark economic growth. 

The panel’s Republicans say they will pass the reform plan this year, and hope to have a tax rewrite completely enacted during fiscal 2014. House GOP leaders have already said they will give tax reform the prized H.R. 1 slot in the current Congress.

In their letter to Ryan, who also serves on the Ways and Means, the GOP members of the committee also said they are looking to slice the tax code into two brackets, 10 percent and 25 percent, and to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax. 

On the corporate side, Camp and Republicans want to reduce the top rate to 25 percent, from the current 35 percent, and suggested they want to limit U.S. taxation of offshore corporate income. 

Those goals are roughly in line with the tax reform framework put into place by Ryan’s budget last year. Ryan’s newest budget is expected on Tuesday.

Camp had earlier said he was uncertain whether dropping the top income tax rate to 25 percent was feasible, after the fiscal cliff deal raised that rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. 

Republicans also reiterated in the Ways and Means letter that they are opposed to any further revenue increases, in the wake of the fiscal cliff agreement.  

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