The present Virginia income tax law differs from the corresponding federal law in many significant respects. As a result taxpayers in Virginia must comply simultaneously with two different sets of rules in preparing their annual income tax returns and determining their tax liability.

Many other states, faced with a similar situation, have revised their state income fax laws to conform to the federal law. The list of conforming states has grown rapidly in the past few years until at present about half the states with income tax laws conform to the federal rules for determining taxable income.

The convenience to taxpayers that might stem from the coordinating of state and federal income tax laws led the 1966 General Assembly to call for an independent commission study of the matter. The possibility of constitutional problems in the enactment of such a conforming state law also required thorough consideration.

House Joint Resolution No. 64, created this Commission and specified its duties.

Acting pursuant to the Resolution, the President of the Senate appointed Robert C. Fitzgerald, member of the Senate, Fairfax, and Garland Gray, member of the Senate, Waverly, to serve on the Commission; the Speaker of the House of Delegates appointed John Warren Cooke, Delegate, Mathews, L. E. Putney, Delegate, Bedford, and D. French Slaughter, Jr., Delegate, Culpeper, to serve on the Commission. The. Governor appointed Carle E. Davis, Attorney at Law, Richmond; George· D: Fischer, Commissioner of the Revenue, Arlington; Gilbert W. Francis, Attorney at Law, Boykins; Roy C. Herrenkohl, President of the Colonial-American National Bank, Roanoke; R. Braxton Hill, Jr., Certified Public Accountant, Norfolk; and C.H. Morrissett, State Tax Commissioner, Richmond.

The Governor appointed Mr. Slaughter to serve as Chairman of the Commission, and the Commission elected Robert C. Fitzgerald to serve as Vice-Chairman. G. M. Lapsley and Mary R. Spain served as Secretary and Recording Secretary, respectively.

The Commission secured the services of Edwin S. Cohen, Professor at the University of Virginia Law School, to act as consultant to the Commission during the course of its study.

The Commission, near the outset of its work, held a public hearing to which all interested parties were invited. Representatives of the Virginia State Bar and Virginia State Bar Association, the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Accountants' Society of Virginia were among those who presented their views and suggestions to the Commission at this hearing. Numerous meetings have been held by the Commission with Mr. Cohen to review various facets of the subject as the work has progressed. The Commission has endeavored to give careful consideration to the overall fairness of the state income tax law, to the convenience of taxpayers in keeping records and filing income tax returns, to the need for effective administration of the law and to the requirements of the state for revenue.