Tax Reform Panel's Report Draws Fire From Housing Groups; Proposals Would Kill Housing Tax Credit

摘要

The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform issued recommendations for simplifying the Internal Revenue Code that include eliminating most tax preferences, such as low-income housing and rehabilitation tax credits, and reducing home mortgage interest deductions. The panel's report was sharply criticized by housing organizations. Although the report doesn't specifically mention the low-income housing tax credit program, it states that the panel wanted to start with a "clean tax base." The report says policymakers should evaluate tax preferences like direct spending programs, taking into account their cost, benefits, overall effectiveness, and appropriateness of using the tax system to administer them. The panel recommended maintaining tax benefits that provide incentives to "change behavior in ways that benefit the economy and society," but not provisions that would produce a windfall to targeted groups "for activity they would be likely to undertake even without a tax subsidy."