Tax Policy In Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project

Martin Sullivan (Tax Analysts), Your Guide to Tax Policy in Project 2025, 184 Tax Notes Fed. 161 (July 8, 2024):

The title page reads, “Mandate for Leadership, the Conservative Promise — Project 2025, Presidential Transition Project.” What follows is 920 pages of sweeping changes for the “next conservative president” to put into effect or, if not sufficiently empowered, to recommend to Congress. From abortion to veterans affairs, the anthology of 30 chapters, each by a different author, is a prepackaged game plan for the next administration to hit the ground running with a conservative wish list.

Tax reform would take place in two stages. Stage 1 “intermediate” reform would retain the basic structure of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act but dramatically adjust its moving parts. Stage 2 “fundamental reform” would abolish individual and corporate income taxes and replace them with a consumption tax. The plan calls for the IRS budget to be cut, and as with other executive agencies, more of its top personnel would be appointed by the president.

Led by the Heritage Foundation, more than 50 conservative organizations collaborated on the Project 2025 volume. After President Biden’s poor performance in the June 25 debate and the close ties between former President Trump and the Heritage Foundation, the bulky tome — originally published in April 2023 — can no longer be ignored by those seeking to prepare for the future. The tax policy and tax administration changes are found mostly in Chapter 22, “Department of Treasury.”

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