With the approach of the 2025 expiration of the individual provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on April 11, 2024, regarding the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Arnold Ventures Executive Vice President of Public Finance George Callas, at the time senior tax counsel to House Speaker Paul Ryan, was instrumental in drafting the legislation.
Arnold Ventures views the goals of tax reform through two key lenses: tax reform and fiscal sustainability. Smart tax reform involves broadening the tax base to lower statutory rates, simplifying the tax code, ensuring horizontal equity among taxpayers with similar incomes, and providing stability through permanent reforms. This approach would exchange deadweight loss and economic distortion for economic growth and efficiency. Simplifying the tax system would also reduce the compliance burden on individuals and businesses, making it easier for them to meet their tax obligations.
In addition to advocating for tax reform, Arnold Ventures emphasizes the importance of fiscal responsibility, especially given today’s economic climate of volatile inflation, rising interest rates, and structural federal deficits. We urge Congress to prioritize fiscal responsibility by fully offsetting next year’s tax package.
We believe the best approach for marrying principled tax reform with fiscal responsibility is to make all expiring offsets permanent, identify new additional offsets, and make most of the tax relief permanent. This strategy would set the stage for improved fiscal responsibility through a sustainable revenue base and controlled spending growth.
Read our statement of record here.
