Sen. Jeff Flake: Special interest groups benefiting from tax loopholes
Oct 17, 2017, 6:55 PM
U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake introduced legislation Tuesday that targets special interest groups he claims benefit from eccentric tax loopholes.
Flake, who spoke on the Senate floor, said he wants to eliminate loopholes that allow these groups to claim oddities on their taxes as a way to sidestep the current system. A luxury yacht can qualify as a second home while Alaskan ship captains can expense hunting whales, an illegal act, as a charitable deduction, he said.
Flake said the legislation, the Tax Expenditures Accountability Act, aims to eliminate bogus deductions which cost taxpayers $1.23 trillion each year. The act would require the U.S. Treasury Department to make online posts of any entity receiving federal tax credits.
The department would be required to publicly disclose names of the corporate and special interests receiving tax credits and their cost.
“We must be able to first evaluate who is benefiting from these loopholes, for what purposes and at what price,” Flake said in a press release.
The senator said there are more than 200 loopholes “buried” throughout complicated tax code that most, including government agencies, don’t fully understand. The tax code spans 74,000 pages in length, he said.
“No one – not even those in Washington who write the laws or enforce them – truly understands federal tax law.”
He said “simple and fair” tax codes would eventually lower taxes across the board.
“Many would rather protect these loopholes that allow taxpayers to keep more of their own paycheck,” Flake said. “However, coming up short on tax reform is not an option. Individuals and businesses are suffering under a broken, antiquated tax code that is in dire need of fixing.”
