This week, the President and congressional Republicans unveiled our unified framework to fix our broken tax code and ensure you keep more of your money.

Over the past several months, the Trump Administration, the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the Senate Committee on Finance have worked to develop a framework to achieve pro-American, fiscally-responsible tax reform. This framework will bring the tax code into the 21^st century, support middle-class families, defend our workers, and put America first.

There are three main goals when it comes to tax reform: affordable, simple, and competitive.

It’s clear. Missourians taxes are too high. This framework cuts tax rates and eliminates costly or duplicative taxes like the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Death Tax while providing an increased standard deduction and larger child tax credit. These changes will ensure a simpler tax code with you keeping more of your paycheck each month.

I have heard many stories from Missourians regarding the complexity of our current tax code. Our framework makes filing taxes so easy that 90 percent of taxpayers will only need to fill out a form the size of a postcard. Under current law, individual taxable income is subject to seven tax brackets. Our framework aims to consolidate the current seven tax brackets into four brackets of 0 percent, 12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent.

Additionally, the framework would reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, allowing our businesses to grow and create jobs here in the U.S. The current rate of 35 percent is the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, and is an overwhelming burden on our economy. Alleviating this burden will make American companies more competitive in the global market, bringing jobs back to our shores, and providing countless Americans with the ability to support their families. In short, a lowered corporate rate will mean more well paying American jobs, and the simplified, lowered individual rate means you will be able to keep more of the money you have earned.

All of the information from the recently released framework and more resources are available here. In addition, please do not hesitate to reach out to my offices with questions or comments.

94 percent of families across the country are forced to pay for professional help to file their taxes. Even with that professional help Americans spend six billion hours each year complying with the tax code. It is clear that we must take action to fundamentally change and simplify our tax system. Enacting the changes in this framework will give our economy the boost it needs and mark the beginning of the end of our growing dependence on the federal government.