Axios Event: Lawmakers & more talk tax policy future

Axios hosted an event in Washington, D.C. featuring conversations with Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Kyle Pomerleau, and Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) on tax policy reform and why potential adjustments could be worth examining.

Why it matters: Tax policy can often be complex and complicated for Americans, and improved transparency in the system could be one step towards easing this burden and making sure they are able to take full advantage of the credits and options available to them.

What they're saying: Rep. Schneider called on the Senate to pass the bipartisan tax bill that passed the House but is currently stalled in the Senate. "My message to the Senate is … get it done," Rep. Schneider said. "This is something that is good for the American people, it's good for American companies, they're trying to lead the way on the global stage where other countries are investing in innovation, and the lead we've always enjoyed is getting smaller."

• Rep. Van Duyne also voiced support for the bipartisan tax bill. "It was pretty apparent the night that we had the vote that there was a little bit of confusion on the child tax credit on both sides of the aisle, but that the depreciation, the R&D, the expensing, [is] so important for businesses," she said. "I think that will be a very good bill if we could get it out of the Senate."

"While the TCJA was called tax reform, it did make some important improvements to the tax code, it didn't fix everything," Pomerleau said. "There's a lot that still could be done to simplify the tax code, to reduce economic distortions, and I think lawmakers should address those things as part of any discussion surrounding tax reform."

Sponsored content:

In a View From the Top sponsored segment, Intuit executive vice president and consumer group general manager Mark Notarainni noted how the complexity of the tax code has increased over the years.

• "What's interesting, over those years since we've launched our product, the tax code has become significantly more complex. It's actually increased threefold," Notarainni said. "It's over 6,000 pages of tax code between federal and state, so there's just a lot more complexity."

Thank you to Intuit for sponsoring this event.