Rep. Tim Scott: "We Need A Simpler, Flatter & Fairer Tax"

The conservative Republican Congressman pens an op-ed: "One of the first things I did upon arriving in Washington was introduce legislation to reduce our corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 23 percent, as well as allow for permanent repatriation of overseas profits. The case for lowering corporate rates is simple – we have the highest corporate tax rate in the entire world. And in the past we’ve seen positive effects from lowering it - within two years of President Reagan’s tax reform, which included cutting these corporate taxes, government revenues increased 31 percent. Staring at a debt of more than $16 trillion, increasing revenues through tax cuts sure seems like an attractive solution to me."

He continues his commentary: "As for repatriation, we have worldwide business leaders leaving $1.2 trillion in profits overseas that could otherwise be used to create jobs here at home. Even a temporary repatriation tax break down to 5.25 percent from 35 percent would produce nearly 3 million jobs over two years, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That same action would increase our economic output by $360 billion over two years.  Simply put, moving to a territorial tax system will level the playing field with the rest of the world."

Rep. Tim Scott argues that the $35 billion that Americans spend for assistance in filing their taxes could be put to better uses: "As for the income tax, why do we expect folks to be happy with a system that forces Americans to spend 8 billion hours a year doing their taxes, as well as one that accounts for nearly 80 percent of the paperwork citizens must comply with on the federal level? There are more than 1,100 forms and instructional booklets to determine your tax liability, and the instructions for the most common form (1040) are 189 pages long! The instructions for a tax form are 47 times longer than the U.S. Constitution."