Camp pleads for reform on tax day

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) just won’t quit trying to change the tax code, despite long odds of change this year.

 

“Today, as Americans across the country finish filing their taxes, they come face to face with a tax code that is too complicated, takes too much time to comply with and costs too much,” Camp said in a release to mark the April 15 due date for federal income tax returns.

 

He urged adoption of his draft tax plan released earlier this year, which aims to lower individual and corporate tax rates by ending some tax breaks.

 

“My plan makes the tax code more effective and efficient by getting rid of special interest handouts to lower tax rates for individuals, families and businesses.  Based upon non-partisan analysis, my tax reform plan can put an extra $1,300 a year in the pockets of middle class families. That’s the tax code Americans need – and deserve,” he said. 

 

{mosads}In a different political climate, April 15 could have marked the start of a major legislative push to complete a tax code overhaul this year.

 

Instead, comprehensive tax reform has been written off by most in Washington. 

 

Camp announced in late March that he would be retiring after 12 termsin Congress. He had already endured the loss of his tax reform partner former Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) who became ambassador to China this year. 

 

The retirement announcement came as House leaders declined to endorse Camp’s tax plan explicitly in the 2015 budget resolution in the face of a massive lobbying effort on the part of industries affected by the plan, which curtails popular tax breaks and has a bank tax.