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Tax Policy Center writings cover a wide range of tax issues in many forms, ranging from research reports in national journals and policy briefs of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution to op eds in leading newspapers and testimony at Congressional hearings. The TPC also publishes its own products: Issues and Options policy briefs, Tax Policy Discussion Papers, and regular columns in Tax Notes magazine.

Featured Articles

Coversations: Leonard Burman Leonard E. Burman is a fellow at the Urban Institute and director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He previously served as deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the Treasury Department from 1998 to 2000 and as senior analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. This fall, he will become the first Daniel Patrick Moynihan Chair in Public Policy at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Burman recently sat down with Tax Analysts' Sam Young to discuss his future plans, the outlook for healthcare reform in Congress, and his proposal to create a VAT to pay for healthcare.

Distributional Effects of Tax Expenditures The largest tax preferences for housing, health care, and retirement saving reduce federal revenues by about 3 percent of GDP. They raise after-tax income proportionally more for higher income groups than lower income groups, but raise income proportionately less for those at the very top. The net distributional effects depend on how these tax preferences are financed. If paid for with higher marginal tax rates, they benefit upper-middle income taxpayers at the expense of both lower-income and the highest-income taxpayers, but if paid for by lower per-capita spending, all high-income groups gain and all low-income groups lose.

Recent Publications

How does reduced war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan affect the budget deficit? (August 27, 2010)
Lowering the Heat Around Raising Retirement Age (August 27, 2010)
The Debate over Expiring Tax Cuts: What about the Deficit? (August 12, 2010)
Five Myths about the Bush Tax Cut (August 3, 2010)
A Value-Added Tax for the United States: Part of the Solution (July 22, 2010)
Extending Tax Credits for Low-Income Families (July 19, 2010)
The Fight Over Fiscal Rectitude: Politics or Economics? (July 15, 2010)
Kids' Share 2010: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2009 (July 14, 2010)

Most Requested Publications from the Last 30 Days

Effects of Imposing a Value-Added Tax To Replace Payroll Taxes or Corporate Taxes (April 7, 2010)
How Middle-Age Retirement Adds to Recession Woes (June 2, 2010)
5 Myths about your taxes (April 5, 2010)
The Debate over Expiring Tax Cuts: What about the Deficit? (August 12, 2010)
Extending Tax Credits for Low-Income Families (July 19, 2010)
The Impact of the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010 ("Wyden-Gregg") on Effective Marginal Tax Rates (July 14, 2010)
The Future of Individual Tax Rates: Effects on Growth and Distribution: Donald Marron's Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Finance (July 14, 2010)
Preliminary Revenue Estimates and Distributional Analysis of the Tax Provisions in the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010 (May 24, 2010)