On the PERAB Tax Task Force Report

Today, the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) approved its report on tax reform and sent it to the President.

• Read the report (pdf).
• Letter to the President from Chairman Paul Volcker (pdf).

The PERAB report fulfills the specific mandate they were given: to discuss the pros and cons of a spectrum of reform ideas relating to tax simplification, improving compliance with existing tax laws, and reforming the corporate tax system.  They were also instructed not to consider policies that would raise taxes on families making less than $250,000.

The report is meant to be informative rather than prescriptive. Its intention is to aid discussion about the wide variety of tax reform ideas in these areas. The PERAB was not tasked with providing its own policy recommendations for the Administration and, of course, given the independence of the PERAB as a group of outside advisers, it is not a reflection of administration ideas under consideration. The final report approved today is an informative and important almanac of options for tax reform.

The report will also be submitted to the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform as they continue to consider ways to address our nation’s middle and long-term fiscal challenges and to achieve fiscal sustainability.

The Tax Reform Subcommittee of the PERAB received more than 600 serious submissions of tax reform ideas from the public both in person and in writing or electronically during their deliberations. They considered as many of these suggestions as possible.

The tax reform subcommittee is one of seven subcommittees of the PERAB, including subcommittees on Jobs, Growth, and Investment; Financial Markets and Regulation; Retirement and Savings; Housing and Mortgage Policy; Energy, the Economy, and Technology and Education and Training.

Austan Goolsbee is the staff director and chief economist on the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board