On March 11, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) announced a bipartisan effort to begin soliciting ideas from interested members of the public and stakeholders on how best to overhaul the nation’s broken tax code to make it simpler, fairer, and more efficient. Their goal is to provide additional input, data, and information to the Committee’s bipartisan tax working groups, which are currently analyzing existing tax law and examining policy trade-offs and available reform options within each group’s designated area. FAWCO urges its members and the general public not to lose this opportunity to speak directly to the people who will be shaping our much-needed tax reforms!
Each of the bipartisan groups will work directly with the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to produce an in-depth analysis of options and potential legislative solutions within its assigned area, with the goal of having one final comprehensive report featuring recommendations from each of the five categories completed by the end of May.
“By opening up our bipartisan working groups to public input, we hope to gain a greater understanding of how tax policy affects individuals, businesses, and civic groups across our nation,” Hatch and Wyden said. “In doing so, we will also equip our working groups with valuable input, and we hope these suggestions will help guide the groups through the arduous task of putting forth substantive ideas to reform the tax code in each of their areas.”
FAWCO encourages individuals interested in submitting comments to send an email to the bipartisan group below that relates to their area of interest. Send submissions to each group of jurisdiction if an interest area covers more than one group.
(When in Washington in March, we learned that FATCA-related issues fall under the responsibilities of the Individual Income Tax group.)
Individual Income Tax -
International Tax -
Submissions will be accepted through April 15, 2015, and made public at a later date.
We advise:
Keep submissions short and very to the point (no longer than one page).
We also advise a non-confrontational tone and, where possible, constructive recommendations.
Always give your voting address in the United States in addition to your address abroad. If a member of the working group you are writing to is a Senator from your state (see list of working group members), be sure to say so and personalize your message.
All submissions must be submitted as a pdf attachment. The attachment should be saved using the name of the organization/individual submitting the recommendations.
Parties should list the name of the tax working group they wish to contact in the subject line of the email.
Please include contact name, organization (if the submission is being submitted on behalf of a group), phone number, and email address, in the body of the email.
Submissions will be accepted through April 15, 2015, and made public at a later date.
If the above directions are not followed, the Committee reserves the right to not include the submission.
If technical problems are incurred, parties can contact the Committee at 202-224-4515.
