May 10, 1986

The historic tax revision plan unanimously approved by the Senate Finance Committee would touch virtually every individual and business in America. Because of its broad implications, and the heightened prospects that Congress will enact a tax overhaul plan this year, the Senate proposal has raised many questions from taxpayers about the general nature of the plan and about specific situations that involve financial planning. Following are answers to some of the more common questions: Q. People are calling this plan a sweeping overhaul of the tax system. Is it really? A. In terms of impact on individuals, the tax law changes would be the most far-reaching since World War II, when Congress introduced wage withholding. And in terms of restructuring, it probably is the most sweeping in the 72-year history of the tax system, in that it curtails the vast array of special tax breaks that have proliferated in the last two decades, while lowering the top tax bracket from 50 percent to 27 percent - the lowest in more than half a century.

President Corazon C. Aquino told Secretary of State George P. Shultz today that although a new American aid package ''fell far short of what was needed'' to help the Philippines, she was reconciled to not getting more at this time, her spokesman said. The Philippine spokesman said Mrs. Aquino understood ''the statutory limitations'' put on the Reagan Administration by budget laws in Washington and would put the burden of the effort on improving the economy on the Philippine people. Invitation Is Renewed Mr. Shultz renewed President Reagan's invitation for her to visit Washington, and she is now planning a lengthy visit to Washington and other American cities sometime in November, he said. Comments by Mrs. Aquino and by Mr. Shultz seemed to diminish the tension that had recently developed in Philippine-American relations.

The heads of most of the nation's biggest corporations say they are inclined to support a radical overhaul of the tax code passed this week by the Senate Finance Committee despite specific provisions that would be costly to their companies or industries. Many members of the elite Business Council, attending a semiannual meeting here at the Homestead, qualified their endorsement. They said they would not be able to support alterations to bring the bill closer in line with the one passed by the House of Representatives, and that the transition must be smoothly phased in. They also said their support assumed that a detailed analysis would not uncover adverse consequences not yet apparent.

The American dream is the immigrant's dream, a vision so strong it can help change the face of an industry or the shape of a neighborhood. Here, for example, is Jimmy Shek of Chinatown, a new entrepreneur in the garment trade who has helped transform this insular quarter of the city into New York's chief center of apparel manufacturing and a source of employment for hundreds of Asian immigrants. Hundreds of unionized apparel factories, most of which produce women's sportswear, the largest category of apparel production in the city, have opened in Chinatown during the last decade. These openings represent dramatic shifts in this New York City industry: a shift of locale, from midtown to the Lower East Side, and a shift of influence, from ethnic groups such as Italians and Jews to, for the most part, the Chinese.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said today that Soviet officials had told him they were working to encase the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor in a jacket of concrete. The process, known technically as entombment, is intended to seal off any release of radioactive material and avoid the possibility that molten radioactive fuel in the reactor might melt through the plant basement and into the groundwater, causing an explosion. The official, Hans Blix, said the operation involved tunneling under the reactor to lay concrete under the graphite core, which would ''eventually be a foundation to entomb the structure.'' 'A Reasonable Approach' The plan, he said, was ''probably a reasonable approach'' and considerably safer than trying to extract the nuclear fuel. It would be the first case of a commercial reactor's being entombed. [ American experts widely believe that the graphite core of the crippled Soviet reactor is still burning but say the chance that molten fuel will burn through the reactor's foundation and explode violently is remote. Their consensus is that the disaster is not yet over. Page 4. ] Dr. Blix, a Swede who is the director general of the Vienna-based atomic agency, and Morris Rosen, an American who heads the agency's nuclear safety division, were the first Western officials to question Soviet experts and to visit the plant area in the Ukraine since explosions touched off a fire and radiation leak almost two weeks ago.