Should-Read: Karl Smith: The Big Six Tax Reform Framework: The Good and the Bad

Should-Read: OK. But where is The Ugly?

Karl Smith: THE BIG SIX’S TAX REFORM FRAMEWORK: THE GOOD AND THE BAD: “For individual taxpayers, we see a meaningful effort to curb and slowly eliminate the myriad of deductions and loopholes that plague the tax code… https://niskanencenter.org/blog/big-sixs-tax-reform-framework-good-bad/

…On the corporate side, the move to a territorial system is a step in the right direction, toward a system with less gamesmanship and fewer tax-avoidance strategies. That being said, I understand the incredulity and disgust provoked by the administration’s rhetoric. President Donald Trump explicitly rejected the tax reform label in favor of the more compelling, but far less accurate, language of a middle-class tax cut. We shouldn’t, however, let the president’s inanity drive our actual analysis of policy. If we do that, the imps win. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it best: “The president speaks for himself.”

There are two big elements in this package that tax reformers have been looking for—for decades. The first is an end to itemization in the individual tax code. The second is the move to destination-based taxation in the corporate code…