Help Pages
The Tax Policy Briefing Book is not like other books; few if any readers will start with the first brief and read straight through to the conclusion. Instead you can pick a topic, read the basic information on it, and then follow the links to related entries in the briefing book or to supporting data tables and publications.
"Print" buttons on every entry allow you to print out that entry. Of course, we plan to continually expand and update the online book, so you may want to check online for new material from time to time. For example, we plan to add a new chapter devoted to the tax proposals offered by the presidential candidates. And we will be adding more topics and features to the book after the 2008 election, when the contours of the tax policy debate become clearer.
How is the briefing book organized?
The briefing book is organized into four topic areas:
Additional sections (coming soon) will include links to the most popular tables estimating revenue and distributional effects of current tax law and proposed changes to it.
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How does the left-hand navigation work?
Each dark blue tab on the left side of the page identifies a briefing book chapter. Clicking on the tab (if the tab contains a plus-mark toward its right side) opens a set of light blue tabs under the chapter title. (You can close an open tab by clicking it again to make the section tabs disappear.)
Each light blue tab identifies a section of the chapter containing a series of questions on the section’s topic. Moving your cursor over a section tab opens a set of lighter blue tabs to the right of the section tab. Each of the new tabs links to a question about the section topic. Just click on a tab to go to the question and its answer.
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What information does each entry contain?
Each entry opens with a basic answer to the question posed, followed by bullet points that expand on that answer. Many entries have figures or tables that provide numerical information supporting the answers; each figure or table links to an Excel file containing all of the data displayed.
Following each entry are links to briefing book entries on related topics, references to papers and books on the topic (with links when available), and links to data sources.
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How can I move between entries?
You can easily move from one entry to the next (or the previous) using the triangles at the top of each page. Clicking on the triangle pointing to the right takes you to the next entry in a section or chapter; the triangle pointing to the left takes you back to the previous entry. The first and last entries in any section have only one triangle.
Alternatively, you can use the left-hand navigation to move among entries. Just click on any rectangle on the left side of a page to show more choices or go to an entry. See How does the left-hand navigation work? above.
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Where can I find definitions of terms used in the briefing book?
Each page of the briefing book has a link to the Glossary at the bottom of the left-hand column. Glossary terms appear in alphabetic order. Rather than scrolling through the entire glossary to find a term, you can use the alphabet at the top of the first page to jump to terms that start with a given letter.
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Is there a guide to acronyms?
The glossary includes a link to a list of acronyms. Just navigate to the glossary using the link at the bottom of the left-hand column of each page; then use the link at the top of the glossary to go to the list of acronyms.
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What do I do if I find an error or think something is missing from an entry?
We would very much appreciate your letting us know about errors, missing information, or any comments or suggestions you have. Just send us an email using the
Contact Us link at the bottom of the left-hand side of each page. Clicking on that link will open an email form for you to use.
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