See It Becoming Law Without Major Change : Officials Optimistic on Tax Revision Bill

High hopes that the far-reaching tax revision bill reported last week by the Senate Finance Committee will become law without substantial change were voiced Sunday by top Treasury officials and congressional leaders from both parties.

Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III predicted that President Reagan will “lead the charge” for the measure even though Reagan was “not in the position to endorse every jot and tittle . . . of a piece of legislation this comprehensive.”

Urging that the measure be viewed “as an overall package,” Baker discounted objections to provisions of the bill doing away with most tax shelters and curtailing or eliminating most deductions, including those now allowed for capital gains and interest on many individual retirement accounts.

‘Significant’ Bill

Baker called the bill “the most significant piece of tax reform we’ve had in over 50 years.” By fixing tax rates at two basic levels, 15% and 27%, compared to the present 11-bracket structure of rates ranging from 11% to 50%, he said, it will give 80% of all Americans a top rate of 15% or lower.

“The trade-off here is lower rates and a great deal more simplicity,” Baker said.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), appearing with Baker on the NBC program “Meet the Press,” made a general commitment to stand with Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), chairman of the Finance Committee, to help fight off an expected wave of amendments when the bill reaches the Senate floor next month.

But Dole made no firm pledge, observing that “we may find out that some (provisions) should be changed.” Pressed, he said he would not support Packwood in an announced move to cancel a scaled-down shelter for oil and gas investors that was included in the Finance Committee bill.

Packwood, who is widely credited with negotiating unanimous Finance Committee approval of the wholly rewritten tax bill, joined Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, in predicting that differences between the Senate bill and one that has passed the House can be resolved. The two chairmen appeared on the ABC program “This Week With David Brinkley.”

Improvements Seen

Predicting that his committee bill will pass the Senate “very much the way it came out of the Finance Committee,” Packwood seemed hopeful that it may be improved when it is sent to conference to be reconciled with the measure that passed the House last year.

“There’s an awful lot of good reform in the House bill that’s not in the Senate bill,” Packwood said, “and if we can marry the best parts of both bills I think we are going to have a code that we can keep for a generation and be proud of.”

Rostenkowski said he thought “we’re going to see tax reform,” but “it won’t be easy.” He foresaw problems in conference with the IRA provision and the extent to which state and local taxes would be deductible.

“But there is, I think, an agreement among members that tax reform is going to pass and that people will be investing their dollars based on good business practices as opposed to hiding it from the government,” Rostenkowski said.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Richard G. Darman, appearing on the ABC program, foresaw “a very favorable effect on economic growth” resulting from the bill. He based this on assumptions that “if people have lower rates they are likely to work harder” and “that if there are no more incentives for people to invest in shelters, they will take the money they might have invested in shelters and invest it in more productive activity.”

Both Baker and Dole predicted that the Senate bill will prove to be revenue neutral over the five-year period covered by budget projections. Although Dole saw the possibility that “maybe in the first couple of years it might even be a little revenue surplus,” he denied such a surplus would amount to a tax increase because “over a five-year period, it’s revenue neutral.”