According to an article in the Bond Buyer, former congressional tax counsels John Buckley and Jon Traub on Tuesday sparred over the recent experiment by the Joint Committee on Taxation to see how much marginal tax rates could be reduced if certain major tax expenditures, including tax exemption, were eliminated.
The large tax expenditures eliminated included itemized deductions, taxing income from capital-gain realizations at preferential rates, and the interest on tax-exempt bonds. The JCT also assumed several changes to current law, such as that the AMT would be repealed.
The BDA, which is leading an effort to form a coalition to fight threats to tax exemption, will continue to point out to policymakers the additional costs to state and local governments that come from eliminating or scaling back tax exemption. Susan Collet of the BDA said, “It’s a pretty big number that could be used to fill in these holes when Congress tries to do a massive redesign of tax policy, but it comes at a great cost,” she said. “Sure there is revenue, but at what cost to the economy, citizens and local governments and infrastructure?”
View the full Bond Buyer article [here.]
For the JCT letter, click [here.]
