Tax Tyranny

Tax reform under a second Bush Administration will most likely take the form of piecemeal tax cuts, according to panel participants at a conference of the Council for Electronic Revenue Communication Advancement, a government-private industry trade association.

The Chamber, the NAM, the NFIB and the American Farm Bureau Federation have not responded to a request by Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) to weigh in on his proposal (H.R. 25) to replace the 91-year-old personal income tax with a national sales tax of 23 percent, a Republican House aide said.

The tax system is under severe pressure. Expiring provisions must either be made permanent or excised from the code. The Alternative Minimum Tax demands a permanent fix, and something desperately needs to be done to help the Internal Revenue Service administer a tax system both increasingly incomprehensible and too easily evaded.