WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A U.S. tax consultant said the nation's federal elections may result in progress reforming the alternative minimum tax.
Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy with Deloitte Tax LLP, said Thursday in a statement that with Republicans running the administration and Democrats the legislature, tax issues generally could advance.
"Ironically, divided government, with Republicans controlling the White House and Democrats in charge of the House, could make resolution of these issues easier than it was under single-party rule," he said.
"In the past, the strict discipline of House Republicans often produced legislation that could not pass the Republican-controlled Senate, where the threat of filibusters by Senate Democrats, sometimes with help from moderate Senate Republicans, blocked action. Compromises necessary in the Senate were hard to negotiate through the House."
He also said that to establish a record of legislative success, House Democratic tax writers will have to produce legislation that appeals to an increasing number of more conservative or centrist Democratic House members and ultimately to both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate where margins will be exceptionally thin.
