[JURIST] A tax reform interest group chairman says that the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform [official site] created last January to consider alternatives to the current US income tax system will probably not recommend any major changes to the code when it submit its report to the Treasury Department [official site] by November 1st. The panel is considering two primary alternatives: a value-added tax system [Wikipedia backgrounder] similar to those employed in Europe and elsewhere, to be discussed by the group tomorrow, and a national sales tax [Washington Post report], which was rejected by the group last week due to concerns over high rates and potential tax evasion. Leo Linbeck, head of Americans for Fair Taxation [advocacy website], had been pushing the national federal sales tax option. The Congressional Research Service has published a report [CRS text] comparing the two proposals. AP has more.