Senators Rethink Short-Term Tax Extenders

"The bottom line is that if Congress is going to use temporary tax policy, taxpayers should be able to count on it," Grassley said.

The task forces are reviewing the original purpose of each policy and whether it's still necessary, Grassley said. "If so, the task forces will be responsible for identifying possible solutions that would provide long-term certainty in these areas."

The task forces may decide to phase out the credit or deduction over a period of time, scale it back or eliminate it completely, Grassley said, while some provisions may also be extended without reform.

"For those, the particular task force will need to determine whether a continued short-term extension would work to achieve its policy goals, whether a longer-term extension is needed to force Congress to re-evaluate the provision down the road, or if the provision should be made permanent," he said.

The job of the task-forces "is to identify reform proposals so Congress can end the unfortunate practice of kicking the can down the road, one year at a time."

— Check out Senate Finance Chair Floats Tax Extenders Bill on ThinkAdvisor.