Lower taxes for working families. Tax relief for small businesses. A long overdue simplification of our tax code. It’s all part of the tax reform just announced by President Trump. It’s going to be the key to sustaining the growing economy that Trump has kick-started. Three percent GDP is good, but implementing this package is a necessary next step to take us toward historic growth.

There are four principles of the president’s effort. First, we need to simplify the tax code. Americans should be able to understand where their money is going and why. Today’s basic tax form has 241 pages of instructions. Nineteen of 20 families need professional help in doing their taxes. It shouldn’t be that way. Under this plan, 95 percent of Americans will be able to file their tax return on a single page. You won’t need to keep all those receipts, fill out schedules and keep track of endless paperwork. You will have better use of your free time than filling out tax forms.

Secondly, this tax reform plan gives American workers a pay raise. Couples would pay no tax on the first $24,000 of income. The middle class of Arizona and the country will see lower taxes, allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money. That in turn builds our growing economy. In addition to expanding the ‘zero tax bracket’, this plan increases the Child Tax Credit and repeals the Death Tax, so family businesses can be passed on to the next generation, without crippling tax bills.

Thirdly, small businesses, the engine of Arizona’s economy, will see dramatically lower tax rates. Our current business tax rate is the highest in the developed world. This plan brings that tax rate down from 35 percent to 20 percent. This will level the playing field, so our companies can compete in the global economy, As President Trump told the Indiana crowd when he announced the plan, this will “cut taxes on American businesses to restore our competitive edge and create more jobs and higher wages for American workers.”

The fourth principle encourages companies to do business in our country. Our current tax system penalizes companies that bring wealth they’ve earned overseas back to America. The result is that corporations park trillions of dollars in foreign countries. This plan considers those overseas assets repatriated and would be taxed one time at a lower rate, so the money would come back to American cities and towns.

Over the next few weeks and maybe months, you’ll hear much discussion of this bold proposal. Let’s not let Congress pass skinny tax reform. Any one of these measures would be great but we need to tell Congress to get their act together and pass it all. The president is willing, it’s up to Congress to make it happen and it’s up to us to make sure they hear from us. It’s time for families across Arizona and our nation to see lower taxes, a growing economy and a tax system we can actually understand.

— Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, has served in the Arizona Legislature since 2013.

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The views expressed in guest commentaries are those of the author and are not the views of the Arizona Capitol Times.