WASHINGTON – This week President Trump unveiled his tax reform plan, including comprehensive reforms to the tax code that would erase most deductions and simplify the system for individuals into three tax brackets, reports The Hill.

Trump’s plan would:

• Reduce the top personal income tax rate from 39.6% to 35% and double the standard deduction for taxpayers to $24,000.
• Lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%.
• Repeal the estate tax and alternative minimum tax.
• Offer a one-time tax on corporate profits overseas that would allow companies to repatriate funds to the United States.

Trump’s tax plan does not include a border-adjustment tax that would impose a new tax on imports.

The Wall Street Journal writes that the president’s plan leaves several crucial issues unresolved, such as whether companies could immediately write off capital expenses, where to set the one-time tax rate on U.S. companies’ stockpiled foreign earnings, how a break for child care would be structured and where the tax brackets for individuals would be set. According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Gary Cohn, the director of Mr. Trump’s National Economic Council, those issues would be worked out during negotiations with Congress.

“Clearly we have a unique opportunity to do something major here,” Cohn told the Journal. “It’s our intention to create a huge tax cut, and equally as important, a huge simplification of the tax system in America.”

Following the tax reform announcement, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) issued the following joint statement:

“Getting tax rates down for American companies, big and small, will create new jobs and make the United States a more inviting place to do business. With an eye toward fairness and simplicity, we’re confident we can rebuild our tax code in a way that will grow our economy, better promote savings and investment, provide our job creators with a competitive advantage, and bring prosperity to all Americans.”