House Republicans on Wednesday are unveiling a plan for a massive overhaul of the tax system, which they say would simplify the tax code but would also include a new surtax on the wealthy.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan is expected to announce the details of the plan during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
In a Wall Street Journal piece, Camp previewed the overhaul, saying it represents what “a simpler, fairer tax code actually looks like.”
“The tax code should make it easier for American companies to bring back profits earned overseas so they can be invested here,” Camp wrote. “It should not hinder small businesses from growing into large businesses. And the individual income tax needs to be simpler, fairer and flatter for everyone.”
But while the plan is expected to lower rates by doing away with certain deductions, it also plans to institute a “new 10 percent surtax” on the wealthy (though it would not apply to capital gains or dividends).
The Associated Press reports, “Camp’s plan would cut income tax rates but impose a new surtax on some high-income families, said a GOP aide who wasn’t authorized to discuss the plan by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. The top income tax rate for most families would be lowered from 39.6 percent to 25 percent. However, the plan would impose a new 10 percent surtax on some earned income above about $450,000.”
The surtax idea could be problematic with conservatives.
A spokesman for Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform told The Daily Caller that the conservative group would release an opinion on the proposal after the details are released Wednesday afternoon.
Despite the proposal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted Tuesday that it tax reform would not go very far this year.