No, the Obamas aren’t looking for a tax professional to help them file their first 1040 as residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Rather, the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) is now taking comments from anyone — that’s you, me and all our friends and relatives (OK, maybe not some of my relatives, but I digress.) — who has ideas and opinions on ways to improve the U.S. tax system.
This isn’t, however, an open call for totally new ways to assess and collect taxes. So forget about submitting tax protester arguments, the flat tax and its variations or the ever popular “abolish the IRS.”
Rather, the PERAB (And boy, is this one of those times when the board creators should have thought of the acronym first. PERAB. Really? But I digress again.) is charged with looking at way to simplify taxes, better enforce tax laws and reform corporate taxes.
And per Obama’s campaign pledge, PERAB won’t consider any suggestions that would raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year.
Ways to comment: OK, you have the perfect tax reform idea. Send it via the official submission form.
Or if you prefer, e-mail your thoughts to perab@do.treas.gov. If you e-mail your comments, include a cover sheet with your name and, if applicable, organization, as well as the submission date and your contact information.
If you have supporting material, PERAB wants it, too, as long as it doesn’t exceed five single-spaced pages of text.
All comments eventually will be posted online. The hope is that the ideas might spark elaboration or additional tax reform suggestions from more citizens.
So put your tax reform thinking cap on. You have until Oct. 15 (another important deadline for filers who got an extension back in April; but for the third, and final, time, I digress) to get your ideas to PERAB.
And if you’re so inclined, feel free to copy the ol’ blog with your tax reform suggestions. I’m sure Don’t Mess With Taxes readers would love an advance look at your ideas.
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