The Tax Policy Center Newsletter
February 7, 2008

Policymakers testifying before Congress or getting grilled on Sunday morning interview programs carry along a briefing book filled with questions and answers on (they hope) every topic that might come up. As the campaign season goes into hyperdrive, the Tax Policy Center debuts an online briefing book that tackles scores of tax and budget questions likely to come up during the election and beyond.

The briefing book is intended as a resource for the public, the press, and even the presidential campaigns-in short, for anyone who wants to be well informed about current tax and budget matters. The book will be refreshed regularly as candidates offer tax proposals and new topics arise on the campaign trail.

The Tax Policy Briefing Book offers compact explanations in four chapters:

• Some Background answers basic questions about the current state of tax and budgetary affairs. How much revenue, for example, does the federal government raise from which sources? How do Congress and the president decide on a budget?
• Key Elements of the Tax System describes how the major features of the tax code work. What taxes are now on the books? How do they affect individuals, families, and businesses? How do those effects change over time?
• Ways to Improve the Federal Tax System looks forward, evaluating various proposals to reform our tax system: What incremental reforms would make the system work better? How would more fundamental reforms work?
• The State of State (and Local) Tax Policy examines how state and local governments raise funds and how their taxes interact with the federal tax system.

Each entry identifies related topics, offers suggestions for further reading, and links to data files containing relevant numerical and graphical information. A glossary defines tax and budget terms and an appendix will contain a compendium of the Tax Policy Center’s most requested tables of estimates.

The Tax Policy Briefing Book is a work in progress-material on state and local taxes, for instance, will appear over the next few weeks-and we invite your suggestions on how to make it even better. To get up to speed on tax and budget topics, go to the the briefing book.