for orm. analysts recommend the introduction of new taxes such as a value added tax, national retail sales tax or pollutiontae tax to supplement or replace ou current system. those ideas are worthreplace discussion, but in today's. testimony i would like to focus on a more traditional approach,o on asigning income tax. i would like to make seven main gndesi points.tax. first, as has already been mentioned, a tax preference purveys the tax code. these total more than 1 trillio annually, which is almost as much as we collect from th individual and corporate income taxes bowline -- combined.ome narrow the tax base to reduceths bavenue, distort activity, complicate these system, force rates higher than they would econ teherwiseom be and are oftentaxa unfair. second, the first step in any tax reform should be to broaden the tax base by reducing or eliminating tax preferences. doing so would help level the playing field among different economic activities, reduce the degree to which taxes distortac,