House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., talked about the prospects for a flat tax Thursday.
“I’ve always been a flat taxer,” Ryan said at the conservative National Review Institute’s Ideas Summit. “I think the flat tax, that direction is the best way to go in my personal opinion.”
Ryan added that his goal was to get a new president and pass comprehensive tax reform in the next session of Congress.
When asked if he wanted to abolish the IRS, Ryan said “In a flat tax you don’t abolish the Internal Revenue Service. I’ve never seen a flat tax bill that does abolish the IRS.” Ryan said he would have wanted to make the tax code simple enough that people don’t have to feel threatened by the IRS. “[The tax code] gives them so much discretion and subjectivity. Let’s take that away so that we have a tax enforcement or collection agency that is objective.” He added that the IRS shouldn’t be in the middle of Americans’ lives, for example, telling them what health insurance to get.
Ryan said he wanted a vibrant debate among conservatives about what comprehensive tax reform should look like.
