age of $74 per hour on tax-related compliance, mak-
ing it the most expensive paperwork burden they en-
counter. 
(9) Small businesses have been responsible for 
two-thirds of the jobs created in the United States 
over the past 15 years, and approximately half of 
small-business profits are taxed at the current top 2 
individual rates. 
(10) The historic range for tax revenues col-
lected by the Federal Government has averaged 18 
to 19 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 
but will rise to 21.2 percent of GDP under current 
law—a level never reached, let alone sustained, in 
the Nation’s history. 
(11) The current tax code is highly punitive, 
with a top Federal individual income tax rate of 35 
percent (which is set to climb to over 40 percent in 
2013 when taking into account certain hidden 
rates), meaning some Americans could face a com-
bined local, State and Federal tax rate of 50 per-
cent. 
(12) The tax code contains harmful provisions, 
such as the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which 
was initially designed to affect only the very highest- 
income taxpayers but now threatens more than 30 
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million middle-class households because of a flawed 
design. 
(13) As of April 1, 2012, the United States 
achieved the dubious distinction of having the high-
est corporate tax rate (39.2 percent for Federal and 
State combined) in the developed world. 
(14) The United States corporate tax rate is 
more than 50 percent higher than the average rate 
of member states of the Organization for Economic 
Cooperation and Development (OECD)—a factor 
that discourages employers and investors from locat-
ing jobs and investments in the United States. 
(15) The United States has become an outlier 
in that it still uses a ‘‘worldwide’’ system of tax-
ation—one that has not been substantially reformed 
in 50 years, when the United States accounted for 
nearly half of global economic output and had no se-
rious competitors around the world. 
(16) The combination of the highest corporate 
tax rate with an antiquated ‘‘worldwide’’ system sub-
jects American companies to double taxation when 
they attempt to compete with foreign companies in 
overseas markets and then reinvest their earnings in 
the United States. 
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(17) The Nation’s outdated tax code has con-
tributed to the fact that the world’s largest compa-
nies are more likely to be headquartered overseas 
today than at any point in the last 50 years: In 
1960, 17 of the world’s 20 largest companies were 
based in the United States; by 2010, that number 
sank to a mere six out of 20. 
(18) The United States has one of the highest 
levels of taxation on capital—taxing it once at the 
corporate level and then again at the individual 
level—with integrated tax rates on certain invest-
ment income already reaching roughly 50 percent 
(and scheduled to reach nearly 70 percent in 2013). 
(19) The United States overall taxation of cap-
ital is higher than all but four of the 38 countries 
that make up the OECD and the BRIC (Brazil, 
Russia, India and China). 
(b) PURPOSES.—It is the purpose of this Act to pro-
vide for enactment of comprehensive tax reform in 2013 
that— 
(1) protects taxpayers by creating a fairer, sim-
pler, flatter tax code for individuals and families 
by— 
(A) lowering marginal tax rates and broad-
ening the tax base; 
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(B) eliminating special interest loopholes; 
(C) reducing complexity in the tax code, 
making tax compliance easier and less costly; 
(D) repealing the Alternative Minimum 
Tax; 
(E) maintaining modern levels of progres-
sivity so as to not overburden any one group or 
further erode the tax base; 
(F) making it easier for Americans to save; 
and 
(G) reducing the tax burdens imposed on 
married couples and families; 
(2) is comprehensive (addressing both indi-
vidual and corporate rates), so as to have the max-
imum economic impact by benefitting employers and 
their employees regardless of how a business is 
structured; 
(3) results in tax revenue consistent with his-
torical norms; 
(4) spurs greater investment, innovation and 
job creation, and therefore increases economic activ-
ity and the size of the economy on a dynamic basis 
as compared to the current tax code; and 
(5) makes American workers and businesses 
more competitive by— 
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(A) creating a stable, predictable tax code 
under which families and employers are best 
able to plan for the future; 
(B) keeping taxes on small businesses low; 
(C) reducing America’s corporate tax rate, 
which is currently the highest in the industri-
alized world; 
(D) maintaining a level of parity between 
individual and corporate rates to reduce eco-
nomic distortions; 
(E) promoting innovation in the United 
States; 
(F) transitioning to a globally competitive 
territorial tax system; 
(G) minimizing the double taxation of in-
vestment and capital; and 
(H) reducing the impact of taxes on busi-
ness decisionmaking to allow such decisions to 
be driven by their economic potential. 
SEC. 3. EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION OF A MEASURE PRO-
VIDING FOR COMPREHENSIVE TAX REFORM. 
(a) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 
term ‘‘tax reform bill’’ means a bill of the 113th Con-
gress— 
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