[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 84 (Wednesday, June 22, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               INDIVIDUAL TAX SIMPLIFICATION ACT OF 2005

  (Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I have served in this House 
since 1988, and I have been on the Committee on Ways and Means since 
1993. A lot has changed over this time, but one thing still seems to 
stay the same and that is the need to bring simplification to our 
Nation's Tax Code.
  The former chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means said he was 
going to rip the Tax Code out by its roots so that we could start over 
and create a new system that was far more simple. He was unsuccessful, 
as have been most reformers that I have seen in my time on this 
committee.
  Year after year, the problem gets worse. It is easy to call for 
simplification, but it is a lot harder to achieve it.
  Last week, I introduced H.R. 2950, the Individual Tax Simplification 
Act of 2005, which I have done now for 6 years in a row. It is an 
outstanding first step in achieving a simpler Tax Code.
  My bill would eliminate, and listen to this, it would eliminate the 
alternative minimum tax in a revenue-neutral fashion. It would also 
take 200 lines from tax forms, schedules and worksheets and make 
capital gains much easier to calculate.
  As I have indicated, this is 6 years now that we have offered this 
legislation, but every year that passes our Code grows more and more 
complex. We have an opportunity to do away with the alternative minimum 
tax.

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