Are you out of a job if the tax code is flattened or simplified?
No. In any basic income tax system, there’s plenty of complexity to go around. The people who walk around and say, ‘Oh, we can just do the income tax on a post-card’ are really naïve, in my view. There’s lots of complexity to our economy.
What’s holding up tax reform?
Most people don’t think tax reform will get serious legs until 2013. You’ll get tax reform when you have strong presidential leadership. Tax reform is too big for one house of Congress or the other, or even one committee chairman to lead.
Do clients worry they’ll be stuck with the bill for lower rates that may come with tax reform?
They’re cautious. Corporations worry we’d offer up stuff like accelerated depreciation and the manufacturing credit in return for a lower rate, and all of a sudden lawmakers will say, ‘We’ll take that but not lower your rate.’
What’s the agenda for clients now?
A lot of business-tax provisions expire at year end. Generally speaking, they’re not terribly worried about tax increases being enacted by the Super Committee or any other process. The GOP appears to have held the line in terms of not agreeing to tax increases.
Some say the best we can hope for is that the Super Committee sets targets for tax rate cuts and tax break cuts. Is that helpful?
That doesn’t accomplish [any of] the Super Committee’s objectives at all. They’re supposed to figure out a way to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion, not write figures on a piece of paper, which is a waste of time.