Not much progress reported on effort to overhaul tax code

The Trump administration and Republican congressional leaders appear to have made little concrete progress on a plan to overhaul the tax code and lower business and personal rates.

A joint statement issued Thursday offers fewer details than the guidelines the White House released in April. That's raising some doubts as to how the Trump administration can meet its deadline of rewriting the tax code this year and deliver an economic boost in 2018.

The statement suggests that those negotiating the deal have yet to finalize specifics about how low rates could go and the possible impact on the budget deficit. The team includes Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

House and Senate committees hope to draft tax code legislation this fall.