U.S. Treasury Turns Attention Toward Tax Reform

ByJohn S. McClenahen Although U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Alcoa Inc. chairman and CEO Paul H. O'Neill has said he'd like to abolish the corporate income tax, that's not going to happen any time soon. But during the next several weeks his cabinet department will be turning out a series of tax-reform reports, detailing current complexities in the tax code for individuals, small businesses and corporations, and proposing solutions. O'Neill pledges to "work with Congress to see what we can implement" in 2002. "Our tax code is an abomination," O'Neill claimed again last week at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce meeting in Washington. "The complexity of our tax code . . . strangles our prosperity," he says. "And it is a drag on our ability to create jobs in this nation."