Treasury staffers brief House tax writers on derivatives

Tuesday’s briefing comes a day after the top two tax writers in Congress, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), took their tax reform pitch on the road to Minnesota.

{mosads}The two toured both a local bakery and the Fortune 500 giant 3M as they tried to round up more grassroots support for tax reform and bring back the environment that allowed Washington to rewrite the tax code late in the Reagan administration.

Camp and Baucus are continuing their efforts on Tuesday by returning to the Irish Times, a Capitol Hill bar that played a role in the 1986 tax overhaul, to discuss reform with lawmakers from both parties.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew noted at a Ways and Means hearing in April the department was already providing technical support to committee staff as they work to revamp a code with some 4 million words.

Camp released a draft plan in January that would dramatically change how derivatives and other financial products are taxed. That plan, one of three drafts Camp has released, won praise from some top Democrats, including the ranking Democrat at Ways and Means, Rep. Sandy Levin (Mich.).