Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a member of a special tax reform panel, calls for a simplified tax system

• Mayor Richard Daley on Wednesday called upon the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform to propose a system that is "fairer and simpler" to average taxpayers.
• "We need a tax system that people can fully understand," Daley said, estimating that millions of dollars in earned-income tax credits are not claimed because lower-income families don't understand how to obtain the benefit.
• The panel, on a cross-country trip collecting comments on fixing the federal tax system, stopped in Chicago to hear testimony from Daley and seven experts who have studied or extensively dealt with the tax system.
• The White House has said virtually every alternative is on the table, including a flat tax and a national sales tax.
• Despite support by many economists for replacing the current income tax system with a sales tax, which encourages saving by taxing purchases, others doubted the panel would make such a radical recommendation.
• "That's unlikely to happen," said Brian Wesbury, chief investment strategist for Lisle-based Claymore Securities Inc., who believes Congress isn't ready for that step.
• Most tax experts expect the panel to recommend a streamlining of the current income tax code, including creating new incentives to encourage individuals and businesses to save and invest money.
• Those are two goals President Bush has said he wants to achieve in creating a code that encourages "economic vitality and growth.
• Among the changes recommended by Kathryn Kennedy, director of the center for tax law and employee benefits at Chicago's John Marshall Law School, and Susan Dynarski, a Harvard University professor, were ones that would make it easier for people to save for their children's education expenses and for retirement.
• It makes current consumption cheaper than future consumption" because of taxes that are imposed upon the earnings from savings, he said.