Senate working groups to give updates

Senate groups working on tax reform are about to give their colleagues an update on their findings.

Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), set up the five separate working groups to take a deeper dive into the tax code.

{mosads}The five groups will all get a chance to brief the other Senate tax writers in meetings starting Tuesday. A Finance aide said the meetings would also give committee members a chance to offer up feedback in other issues.

The working groups are scheduled to give their findings to Hatch and Wyden by the end of the month. Last week, Hatch and Wyden also released hundreds of comments on tax reform submitted by the public.

The working groups meetings will conclude on May 12. The five groups are tackling the individual tax system, the business tax system, community development and infrastructure, international tax issues and savings and investment.

Tax writers face an uphill climb in overhauling the tax code. But both Hatch and House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have sounded open to concentrating solely on the sort of business tax reform preferred by President Obama.