Presidential Executive Order on Identifying and Reducing Tax Regulatory Burdens

WhiteHouse.gov ^ | April 21, 2017 | President Donald J. Trump

[TaxPayer2000]

EXECUTIVE ORDER

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IDENTIFYING AND REDUCING TAX REGULATORY BURDENS

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The Federal tax system should be simple, fair, efficient, and pro-growth. The purposes of tax regulations should be to bring clarity to the already complex Internal Revenue Code (title 26, United States Code) and to provide useful guidance to taxpayers. Contrary to these purposes, numerous tax regulations issued over the last several years have effectively increased tax burdens, impeded economic growth, and saddled American businesses with onerous fines, complicated forms, and frustration. Immediate action is necessary to reduce the burden existing tax regulations impose on American taxpayers and thereby to provide tax relief and useful, simplified tax guidance.

Sec. 2. Addressing Tax Regulatory Burdens. (a) In furtherance of the policy described in section 1 of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) shall immediately review all significant tax regulations issued by the Department of the Treasury on or after January 1, 2016, and, in consultation with the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, identify in an interim report to the President all such regulations that:

(i) impose an undue financial burden on United States taxpayers;

(ii) add undue complexity to the Federal tax laws; or

(iii) exceed the statutory authority of the Internal Revenue Service.

This interim report shall be completed no later than 60 days from the date of this order. In conducting the review required by this subsection, earlier determinations of whether a regulation is significant pursuant to Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993, as amended (Regulatory Planning and Review), shall not be controlling.

(b) No later than 150 days from the date of this order, the Secretary shall prepare and submit a report to the President that recommends specific actions to mitigate the burden imposed by regulations identified in the interim report required under subsection (a) of this section. The Secretary shall also publish this report in the Federal Register upon submitting it to the President. The Secretary shall take appropriate steps to cause the effective date of such regulations to be delayed or suspended, to the extent permitted by law, and to modify or rescind such regulations as appropriate and consistent with law, including, if necessary, through notice and comment rulemaking. The Secretary shall submit for publication in the Federal Register a summary of the actions taken in response to the report no later than 10 days following the finalization of such actions. Should all such actions not be finalized within 180 days following the submission of the report to the President, the Secretary shall submit for publication in the Federal Register an initial report summarizing the actions taken to that point.

(c) To ensure that future tax regulations adhere to the policy described in section 1 of this order, the Secretary and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall review and, if appropriate, reconsider the scope and implementation of the existing exemption for certain tax regulations from the review process set forth in Executive Order 12866 and any successor order.

(d) The Secretary shall cause section 32.1.5.4.7.5.3 of the Internal Revenue Manual to be revised, if necessary to fulfill the directives in subsection (c) of this section.

Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP

[SES1066]

Speaking as a paid seasonal tax preparer, I’d like nothing better than to follow these ‘directives’ from our duly elected President. In all practicality though, it should be recognized that every single active line of the Internal Revenue Code is ‘owned’ by one or more interest groups of varying but usually significant political power! Thus any effort beyond ‘trimming’ is going to be actively opposed and the deeper the trim the bloodier the battle!

This IS A BATTLE WORTH FIGHTING but we need to recognize that singular political fact of addition versus subtraction. Adding benefits is politically easy and garners votes for the sponsoring politicos. Subtracting benefits is the exact opposite and needs a MAJOR CAMPAIGN do show how the perceived loss will be out-weighed by benefits in the short and long time periods.

[Redwood71]

I don’t think this is the place for one person to determine the financial operations of a country in this manner. The constitutional basis for the executive order is the President’s broad power to issue executive directives. According to the Congressional Research Service, there is no direct definition of executive orders, presidential memoranda, and proclamations in the U.S. Constitution, there is, likewise, no specific provision authorizing their issuance. So the possibility of a president, one man/woman, to create his/her own law has been “accepted” by the country without precedence. And it seemed like every time Obama signed an “executive order” the right got hammered in some way. The E.O.’s need to stop and anything relating to the changes in the operations of the country should be initiated by congress and go through the process of a bill. It may take a little longer, but besides the solidification of the bill, it will build a better confidence by the voters as they would feel the work of the process as a team effort for their behalf.

One person shouldn’t have that much power to think up, sign, and activate changes like this. This is one of the reasons we chased the English out in 1776 when the King or Queen got a whim. So every time a president signs one, and congress has to create a bill to stop it, at which time the president will veto it, and the veto will have to be over ruled, especially with the activist libs trying to create a roadblock for everything, it creates more good problems. And E.O.’s have been overturned before, one with Lincoln. And it was an E.O. that established intern camps for Japanese citizens in WW II and stripped them of their land and all they had earned.

We may have elected a president to represent us, but we also elected a couple of senators and a number of representatives to have a say in it. We elected a president, not crowned a king. I don’t completely fear what Trump might do. But I feared what Obama did and could have done even more to harm this country so it’s got to stop some where because of what can happen in the future.

red

[Sequoyah101]

You’ve had an hallucination haven’t you?

Politicians like things just the way they are and they aren’t going to change them willingly or by the vote of the sheeple:

Confused
Controlled by special interests that fund their campaigns
Their privilidged status for life
No term limits
A process mired in secrecy and contorted rules
They like cheap illegal labor because their benefactors like it
They like a monster tax code so they can favor friends and punish enemies just like their handlers tell them to do.

The situation is as hopeless today as it was in 1938 when Jimmy Stewrart made “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” A decent man can’t survive to fight. The system is totally corrupt.

[Axenolith]

review all significant tax regulations issued by the Department of the Treasury on or after January 1, 2016,

Shouldn't that be something like January 1, 1917?

[factoryrat]

The power to tax is the power to destroy.

There’s no way in hell that the politicians are going to willingly give up that kind of power.

And the crony capitalist masters of the politicians will remind them of that every time the next election rolls around.

The only way to stop it is to outlaw lobbyists

[lakecumberlandvet]

“The Federal tax system should be simple, fair, efficient, and pro-growth.”
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Sounds good. The elimination of the income tax and the implementation of a retail sales tax would more than satisfy the “simple, fair, efficient, and pro-growth” requirement of his executive order.