Fixed dollar cap on deductions is anything but evenhanded

Tax Plan Is Popular, But Not Quite Fair

By JAMES B. STEWART, NYT

Mitt Romney may have lost in November, but the ghost of the Republican presidential candidate lives on in the debate over tax reform and the fiscal cliff.

Mr. Romney’s proposal to limit itemized deductions to a fixed dollar amount, which surfaced during the campaign as a way to close loopholes for the wealthy and broaden the tax base, has attracted a surprising amount of bipartisan support, given its origins in conservative Republican circles.

“There’s renewed interest” in the cap on deductions, Senator Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat who heads the Senate Budget Committee, told The Times last month as budget negotiations heated up.

The political appeal of a proposal that limits deductions without actually naming any — inciting the powerful interests and lobbyists that support them — seems obvious. But many tax experts said that a fixed dollar cap is anything but the evenhanded approach to closing loopholes it appears to be.

(More here.)