GOP chairman presses for tax reform in wake of IRS targeting scandal

The Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said the unfolding IRS scandal should encourage lawmakers to press forward with overhauling the nation’s tax code.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the American tax code needs to be simplified to ensure that the average person can use it.

{mosads}“A lot of people feel the tax code is broken,” said Camp. “It’s not fair, it’s inefficient, it’s so complex. The average family should be able to fill out their own tax forms and file them. They can’t now. It takes the average American 13 hours to comply with the code.”

“I think we need a fairer, flatter, more efficient tax code.”

Camp is in the opening stages of investigating the Internal Revenue Service after the agency revealed it was unfairly targeting conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.

In testimony before his committee this week, Camp said the former head of the IRS revealed a culture of “arrogance” within the agency and that he is planning to ramp up the panel’s investigations.

Camp said he didn’t get enough solid answers out of the former acting-IRS chief, Steven Miller, who President Obama forced to resign this week, and that it appears as though Congress had been intentionally misled by the agency.

The Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), agreed with Camp on Sunday, saying that the existing tax code is part of the problem that led to the IRS targeting conservative groups.

“The reason we have this problem is because we have a tax code that allows groups to use their political operations within the tax code under the guise as a charity, to use undisclosed millions of dollars to do political campaigns,” he said on Meet the Press.