tom bartel, the chief is staff is with us today to provide background on business tax reform issues and highlight some of the topics reviewed in the working group's report. we really appreciate you being with us. we have a great list of witnesses here today as well that will provide important when set insights and recommendations on broad design issues of the business tax system and practical, on the ground issues that are perverse to keep in mind to develop and refine proposals in the tax state. i wanted take a minute to discuss one particular business tax issue that was discussed in the working group report that i believe warren's believe warrants real consideration by everyone here today. very general terms, corporate integration means eliminating double taxation of certain business earnings. under current law, the corporation's earnings are taxed once at the corporate level, with at the entity level and then again at the share holder level when those earnings are distributed to the share holders dividends. in other words, words, under our system of the business is organized the corp

tom bartell, the chief of staff for the join committee on taxation is with us today to provide backsd on business tax reform issues and highlight some of major topics reviewed. we appreciate his work and appreciate him being with us. we have a great group of additional witnesses here today. they'll provide important insights on brought design issues, and practical on the ground issues that are important for us to keep in mind as we further develop and refine proposals in the business tax space. i want to take a minute to discuss one particular business tax issue that was discussed in the working group report that i believe warrants real consideration by everyone here today. corporate integration. in very general terms, corporate integration means eliminating double taxation of certainly corporate business earnings. under current law, corporations earnings are taxed once at the corporate -- entity level, and then again at the shareholder level when those earnings are distributed to the shareholders as dividends in other words, we tax the earns as the corporation itself and those same