alliantgroup shares views on the proposed tax reform options from the Senate Finance Committee

HOUSTON, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark W. Everson, Former IRS Commissioner and alliantgroup Vice Chairman, Dean Zerbe, former Senior Tax Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, and Dhaval Jadav, alliantgroup CEO, agree that the proposed tax reform will come of great benefit in a time of increasing demands on tax administration.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mission statement reads as follows: "Provide America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all." The Senate Finance Committee Staff has presented a staff discussion tax reform which they believe will allow the IRS to accomplish its mission statement more fairly, efficiently, and effectively.

"I welcome anything that can be done to simplify the tax code and improve tax administration. A number of the steps outlined in the staff discussion draft would be of great benefit to individuals, as well as to small and medium size businesses," Everson said. "In addition, Congress has been slow to address the problem of identity theft. It is noteworthy and high time that they tackle this plague, which is straining our tax and financial systems."

Reform options include changes to collection and enforcement, the filing process, simplification of the code, and a miscellaneous section comprised of updates and improvements of taxpayers' rights and Tax Court operations.

"It is important that the Senate Finance Committee has signaled that it is serious about reform and moving forward in an open and transparent manner. Any staff paper on tax reform that proposes getting rid of AMT as well as the Byzantine PEPs and Pease is off to a good start," Zerbe said. "From my time on the Committee, I've found that staff discussion papers have been a good way to bring forward issues and allow for more engaged and substantive discussions that can possibly lead to legislation. It is good to see the Committee moving from platitudes to particulars as they consider much-needed proposals for reform."

The Senate Finance Committee stated potential broad principles for reform such as, reducing the cost to taxpayers of complying with the tax code; improving the ability of the IRS to administer the tax law efficiently; reducing tax evasion and inadvertent mistakes; protecting taxpayers from identify theft and privacy invasions; ensuring that all taxpayers are treated fairly and similarly and overall providing better service.

"As alliantgroup works with thousands of small and medium size companies across the country, I've seen firsthand that the tax code and tax administration need to work better for these businesses. It is refreshing to see that in today's staff paper, there is recognition of the costs and burdens of tax complexity and administration," Jadav said. 

alliantgroup hopes that the Committee will particularly listen closely to small and medium businesses as they move forward with their deliberations to address these issues.

alliantgroup is the nation's premier provider of specialty tax services. Headquartered in Houston, TX, with offices across the country including California, New York, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., alliantgroup works with accountants and their clients to ensure that they receive the full benefits of all available federal and state government-sponsored tax credit and incentive programs. www.alliantgroup.com | 800.564.4540

SOURCE alliantgroup