April 13, 2016 2:37PM # Rep. Roger Williams on Tax Reform By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) --- SHARE The House Ways and Means Committee is holding hearings on tax reform in advance of major restructuring next year should a Republican win the White House. Today, Rep. Roger Williams presents [his plan](https://williams.house.gov/issues/tax-reform) to the committee. The congressman’s Jumpstart America legislation is a good plan, but I would make it better in these ways: - ***Individual Income Tax Rates***. Williams would reduce the current seven tax rates (10, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, and 39.6 percent) to four (10, 15, 20, and 30). I would go to two rates (10 and 25), as envisioned in a previous Paul Ryan tax plan. - ***Individual Savings***. Williams would cut the top tax rates on dividends and capital gains from 23.8 to 15 percent. [That’s great](https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/tbb-066.pdf), but I would add Universal Savings Accounts to any tax overhaul, [as I’ve proposed](https://www.cato.org/blog/universal-savings-accounts-usas-introduced) and Sen. Flake and Rep. Brat have introduced. - ***Corporate Income Tax Rates***. Williams would cut the federal corporate rate from 35 to 20 percent. [I would](https://www.cato.org/blog/corporate-tax-low-rates-high-revenues) slash it further to Donald Trump’s proposed 15 percent. - ***Corporate Foreign Earnings***. Williams would reduce taxes on repatriated foreign earnings. [I would](https://store.cato.org/book/global-tax-revolution) scrap worldwide taxation of corporations and go to a territorial system, allowing tax-free repatriation. - ***Estate Tax***. Williams would eliminate the estate or death tax. [I agree](https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/tbb-0606-36.pdf). - ***Depreciation***. Williams would scrap the business depreciation system and go to expensing, or immediate write-off, of capital investments. I agree. - ***Payroll Taxes***. Williams would cut the federal payroll tax rate by 2 percentage points. Instead, [I would](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/ssa/social-security-retirement) allow workers to redirect 6 percentage points of the tax into private Social Security accounts, while cutting traditional benefits. To workers, that would feel like a large tax cut because they would gain ownership of their retirement contributions, which currently disappear from their paychecks into a government black hole. The [current tax code is a mess](http://time.com/4286921/complex-tax-code/), and it should be overhauled. We should transition to a low-rate flat tax, and the Williams plan and my improvements would be good first steps. So kudos to Rep. Williams for putting a specific pro-growth plan on the table. Other members of Congress should follow suit to aid the Ways and Means Committee in drafting legislation. Americans For Tax Reform [provides](https://www.atr.org/rep-roger-williams-proposals-are-model-pro-growth-tax-reform) a useful summary of Williams’ plan. I provide an overview of tax reform options [here](https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa536.pdf). ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).