Tax Panel Urges Huge Overhaul

Proposes Eliminating Or Reducing Popular Tax Breaks

(CBS/AP)  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said that idea is bound to be politically unpopular. "But it's important to have a comprehensive starting point that will get everyone talking and thinking," he said.

In another major change, taxpayers could purchase health insurance using untaxed money up to the amount of the average premium, about $5,000 for an individual and $11,500 for a family, a change that caps currently unlimited breaks but would create a new tax break for those who do not get health insurance through work.

Both plans would tax rates on individuals and businesses.

Under one plan, individuals would pay no tax on dividends paid by U.S. companies and exclude 75 percent of their capital gains from taxation. Under the second plan, all investment income would be taxed at 15 percent.

Both proposals would abolish the alternative minimum tax, a levy originally drafted to prevent wealthy individuals from escaping taxation but increasingly reaching into the middle class. They also would eliminate federal deductions and credits for mortgage interest, state and local taxes and education, among others.

The advisory commission would replace those withdrawn tax breaks with simpler benefits, including three savings plans that supplant more than a dozen provisions currently available for retirement, medical expenses and education.

President Bush set certain limits on the panel, requiring that the new plans collect roughly as much tax money as the government collects now.

The proposals also had to retain the progressive system that taxes wealthier taxpayers at higher rates than poorer individuals and families. They were also required to recognize "the importance of homeownership and charity in American society."

The panel rejected frequently touted ideas to impose taxes on consumption, like a retail sales tax.

Instead, the group chose to use one recommendation to push for major simplification of the current income tax system. Its second recommendation makes changes for businesses that shift the nation's tax system toward indirect tax on consumption.

The changes allow every taxpayer to use a simpler tax form, less then half the length of the current Form 1040. Snow said that would also cutting in half the number of taxpayers who need to hire a professional tax preparer.

The tax-writing House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees pledged to take a close look at the recommendations.