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The IRS should help taxpayers understand the law

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A national taxpayer advocate recently testified before the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee on proposals to reform IRS operations in the House Republican tax reform blueprint. One suggestion: to focus not only on the percentage of calls that the IRS answers but also on “the range of services we want the tax administrator to provide.” The advocate said the IRS “today answers only ‘basic’ tax-law questions during the filing season and doesn’t answer tax-law questions during the other 8½ months of the year.”

Health care reform still a White House priority

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President Trump tweeted on April 30 that a “new healthcare plan is on its way. Will have much lower premiums and deductibles while at the same time taking care of pre-existing conditions.” The President’s top aides said they want the U.S. House of Representatives to vote this week on a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, though a vote isn’t scheduled yet and Republicans say they still lack the votes to pass it. Even if the plan passes the House, it’s expected to face a tough fight in the Senate.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) looks at corporate income taxes

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The top federal statutory corporate income tax rate in the U.S. is 35%. With state taxes, the top rate averages 39.1%. President Trump and House Republicans have vowed to reduce the top corporate tax to 15%-20%. The CBO studied corporate rates in 2012 and found the U.S. had the highest rate among G20 countries. It released an updated report showing that some countries have lowered rates since then. For example, Japan’s top 2015 statutory corporate tax rate was 32.1%, 5% lower than in 2012

A March madness score that doesn’t involve college basketball.

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This week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to “score” the proposed bill that U.S. House representatives have released to replace the Affordable Care Act. The CBO score will calculate the cost of the American Health Care Act, as well as how many Americans would lose health coverage under it. According to its website, each year the CBO “provides the Congress with several hundred formal cost estimates that analyze the likely effects of proposed legislation on the federal budget.”