Under current law, there are three major tax credits that affect families with children: the earned income tax credit, the child and dependent care tax credit, and the child tax credit.
Individual giving to public charities-most of which comes in the form of charitable deductions from tax filers who itemize on their returns-actually comprises only a small part of charities gross receipts each year: between 8 and 12 percent of gross receipts over the 1996-2003 period.
Tax programs that provide deductions to homeowners or credits to both builders and owners, greatly exceed direct federal outlays on housing. The beneficiaries of these tax programs tend to be middle-to-upper income families who own their homes while the recipients of outlays tend to be lower...
To encourage saving for retirement, private pensions such as employer sponsored 401(k) plans or IRAs receive favorable tax treatment by the federal government. A major goal of such tax provisions is to increase personal saving. A measure of the value of these tax benefits is provided by the...
