Tax Simplification For Americans Act of 2004

TAX SIMPLIFICATION FOR AMERICANS ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - July 21, 2004)

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4841) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to simplify certain tax rules for individuals, as amended.

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Mr. BURNS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) for yielding me time. I thank the committee for allowing me to bring this legislation to the floor today.

This is common-sense legislation. It does something positive for America's working families. H.R. 4841, the Tax Simplification for Americans Act will clear up a number of confusing issues that ordinary people, people like you and people like me, struggle with as they prepare their tax forms and begin to pay their taxes.

H.R. 4841 does several things for the taxpayer. It widens access to the time-saving forms of 1040A and 1040EZ. It clarifies confusing issues in the Tax Code, and it eliminates a number of outdated and unnecessary provisions.

My bill will benefit working families. It will save them both time and money.

Mr. Speaker, the Joint Committee on Taxation concluded that this bill will have only negligible effects on revenues. H.R. 4841 permits more taxpayers the opportunity to use the simpler 1040A and 1040EZ for their filing. Taxpayers with up to $100,000 of taxable income will be able to use these time-saving forms. The previous cap, Mr. Speaker, was $50,000 set in 1982, 2 decades ago, over 2 decades ago with no adjustments for inflation.

Over time the old Tax Code has forced nearly 2 million taxpayers, 2 million taxpayers out of being able to use this simplified, time-saving short form. The new limit that this bill provides is for $100,000 and will be indexed for inflation so this body will not have to again address the issue of a 1040EZ or a 1040A. We are going to allow more taxpayers to use these time-saving forms.

Another provision of the bill will allow the taxpayer who has interest income of more than $1,500 to also use the 1040EZ subject to certain IRS requirements to report the services on those interest incomes.

The IRS has concluded that it takes 28 hours of taxpayer time to prepare a 1040, 28 hours, as compared to 4 hours for a 1040EZ. So the challenge we face is, let us simplify the Tax Code; let us allow more Americans to use the 1040A and the 1040EZ. The changes will allow over 1.6 million taxpayers to file these simple forms.

The other thing this bill does is it provides for elimination of some deadwood provisions, those provisions that are needlessly complicating our Tax Code, and they are obscuring the true meaning of the tax laws. So we need to take the opportunity, while we are increasing the limit on the use of the 1040EZ, to eliminate some of these deadwood provisions.

The tax burdens on Americans is great, and it is as much about how we pay taxes as the amount of taxes we pay. This bill makes it a little easier and a little simpler for Americans to pay their taxes. It is common-sense legislation. It restores reason to the taxable income limits for 1040A and the 1040EZ use. It clarifies confusion in the Tax Code, and it removes deadwood.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine anyone opposing common-sense tax simplification, and I want to urge all of my colleagues to support this bill today.