Chris Stewart on Tax Reform

Just three rates: 10%, 15% and 25%

• Reduce the power of the IRS by allowing taxpayers to complete their taxes on a postcard if they so choose.
• Create a new code consisting of just three rates: 10%, 15% and 25%
  1. 10% for incomes less than $35,000 (single); and married couples earning up to $50,000.
  2. 15% for incomes between $35,000-$75,000 (single); and couples earning between $50,000-$100,000.
  3. 25% for incomes above $75,000 ($100,000 married).
• Allow tax deductions only for home mortgages and charitable giving.
• If they choose, taxpayers can stay with the existing tax structure.
• Protect the working poor through a $2,000 (individual) and $3,500 (married) tax credit.
• Implement a straight 15% corporate tax.

Death Tax is a pernicious double tax.

Heritage Action Summary: This bill would repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, as well as cut the top gift tax rate.

Heritage Foundation recommendation to vote YES: (4/16/2015): Collectively, these measures repeal the pernicious double tax known as the "death tax," and result in a tax cut of $269 billion over 10 years. The death tax hurts economic growth and therefore limits the ability of Americans to prosper. Repealing the death tax would generate an average of 18,000 jobs annually and increase the overall net worth of American households by $300 billion a year. The federal government should encourage, not punish, Americans who work and pay taxes their whole lives, save enough to support themselves through retirement, and retain the ability to fulfill the American Dream by passing along a better life to their children.

Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recommendation to vote YES: (robertreich.org 6/4/2015): At a time of historic economic inequality, it should be a no-brainer to raise a tax on inherited wealth for the very rich. Yet there's a move among some members of Congress to abolish it altogether. Today the estate tax reaches only the richest 2/10 of 1%, and applies only to dollars in excess of $10.86 million for married couples or $5.43 million for individuals. That means if a couple leaves to their heirs $10,860,001, they now pay the estate tax on $1. The current estate tax rate is 40%, so that would be 40 cents. Yet according to these members of Congress, that's still too much. Our democracy's Founding Fathers did not want a privileged aristocracy. Yet that's the direction we're going in. The tax on inherited wealth is one of the major bulwarks against it. That tax should be increased and strengthened.

Legislative outcome: Passed by the House 240-179-12; never came to vote in Senate.