FROM: CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP, CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEELast week in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Dave Camp (R-Midland) led the charge to stop the looming tax hike scheduled to go in effect on January 1, 2013. In a strong bipartisan vote, the House passed Camp’s H.R. 8, the Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act of 2012, which extends current tax rates for all taxpayers and prevents a $4 trillion tax increase on all taxpayers - American families and small businesses alike. During the debate Camp said the need to stop the tax hike is a choice. Congress must choose between adopting a proposal that would raise taxes and, according to an Ernst & Young analysis, destroy 710,000 jobs or stopping the tax hike and enacting tax reform that, when paired with fiscal restraint, will spur the creation of a million new jobs.
The House also voted on H.R. 6169, the Pathway to Job Creation through a Simpler, Fairer Tax Code Act of 2012. The legislation, which was sponsored by Camp, lays out bipartisan principles for comprehensive tax reform and provides an expedited process in the House and Senate for consideration of tax reform legislation in 2013. We all know the current tax code is too costly, too complex and too time-consuming. Since 2001, there have been almost 4,500 changes to the tax code. This complexity causes 9 out of 10 families to either hire a tax preparer or buy tax preparation software forcing individuals, families and employers to spend over six billion hours and $160 billion a year in compliance costs according to the National Taxpayer Advocate. Through comprehensive tax reform families and employers will get some long-overdue and much-needed relief and put America on a path for sustained economic growth and job creation.
