Washington - US President Barack Obama will name a task force to overhaul the country's 96-year-old tax code and plug loopholes that could save 300 billion dollars per year, Obama's top budget advisor said Wednesday.

The task force will be headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and directed by Austin Goolsbee, a close economic advisor of Obama's, and should report back by December 4.

The US budget deficit is projected to top 13 per cent of US economic output this year, in large part the result of huge spending plans to help pull the economy out of a deep recession.

A key aim of the task force is to be "as aggressive as possible" in closing tax loopholes that cost the government mass amounts of revenue, according to Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Orszag said the administration had identified 300 billion dollars a year by closing the tax gap. There were also a wide range of possibilities out there to "streamline" the US tax code, he said.

Keeping with Obama's campaign pledges, there would be only two restrictions placed on the panel: No tax increases on families earning less than 250,000 dollars per year and no tax hikes on any salary class in the next two years. (dpa)