A Guide to the Guide to the Republican Better Way Plan

This special Issue of the Columbia Journal of Tax Law is bound to have both an immediate impact and a lasting significance. The immediate impact is assured because the sole focus of this Issue is the tax plan proposed by the Congressional Republicans as part of their broad reform agenda called A Better Way: Our Vision For A Confident America. As this Issue goes to print, the Better Way Plan (or the Plan for short) is being debated in the White House, on Capitol Hill, in the press, in academic circles, think tanks, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and all major law and accounting firms, as well as in many other places. For anyone thinking through the implications of the Plan, this Issue is a must read. At the same time, the contributions in this Issue will provide a lasting benefit to the tax policy community. Even though the intellectual foundations of the tax system proposed in the Plan were laid decades ago, the core ideas underlying the Plan have never been considered, tested, and scrutinized nearly as rigorously and comprehensively as they are now. Simply put, the level of intellectual capital that is being invested in analyzing the Plan is extraordinary. This Issue combines some of the best applied work on the subject to date. So it will benefit academics, policymakers, and practitioners thinking about the tax systems similar to the one proposed in the Plan for decades to come. This Issue is a guide to the Plan based on what we know so far, and this Introduction is a guide to the Issue. Readers familiar with the basics of the Plan and interested in a comprehensive list of questions, concerns, and uncertainties it raises should start with Michael Graetz’s The Known Unknowns of the Business Tax Reforms Proposed in the House Republican Blueprint. The list of unknowns is long and daunting. Some will not be resolved until after the Plan is put in place, for better or worse. Others will need