The House Ways & Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee are holding a rare joint hearing (the first since 1940) today on Tax Reform and the Tax Treatment of Debt and Equity (webcast):

The hearing will focus on the taxation of debt and equity and the broader economic implications of this treatment. At the hearing, JCT staff will formally present two reports on the taxation of debt financing relative to equity financing. 

• Present Law and Background Relating to Tax Treatment of Business Debt (JCX-41-11)
• Present Law and Background Relating to Tax Treatment of Household Debt (JCX-40-11)

Here are the witnesses (with links to their prepared testimony):

• Thomas Barthold (Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation)
• Mihir A. Desai (Professor, Harvard Business School)
• Victor Fleischer (Professor, University of Colorado Law School)
• Simon Johnson (Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management; former Director of Research, IMF)
• Pamela Olson (Partner, Skadden; former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy)

Press and blogosphere coverage:

• Wall Street Journal, Tax-Writing Committees To Examine Debt and Equity Financing
• WSJ Law Blog, House, Senate Tax Panels to Hear Ideas for Tax Overhaul at Joint Session