Getting More from Tax Incentives

Katharine Graham Conference Center, Urban Institute
2100 M St. N.W., Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Breakfast at 8:30 a.m.
Panel discussions from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET

To attend this event in Washington, DC register at http://www.urban.org/events/other/rsvp.cfm, e-mail: info@taxpolicycenter.org, or call 202-261-5554. If you can't leave your computer or come to Washington, D.C., register at http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=58794.

The budgetary cost of tax incentives with social policy objectives is large and growing. President Obama’s 2010 budget proposes expanded credits for child care, low-income earners, retirement saving, and higher education. Additional credits for housing and health care were proposed during the fall campaign.

Cosponsored by the American Tax Policy Institute, NYU School of Law, and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, this day-long event will bring together some of the nation’s foremost experts on tax policy, health policy, housing, and retirement to discuss whether and how tax incentives should be used to promote social policy goals and how best to reform current tax incentives for health care, owner-occupied housing, and retirement saving.

Panelists will address five questions in each area:

• Should the government intervene?
• If so, should we use fiscal incentives, explicit regulation, or soft paternalism?
• If we use fiscal incentives, should they be tax incentives or direct spending?
• What features would make tax incentives most effective?
• What policy would you recommend?

9:00–10:15 a.m. - Session 1: General Principles

10:15–10:30a.m. - Break

10:30a.m.–Noon - Session 2: Tax Incentives for Health Insurance

Noon–1:00p.m. - Lunch

• Speaker
  Jeffrey Liebman, executive associate director, Office of Management and Budget
•  

• 1:00–2:30p.m. - Session 3: Tax Incentives for Owner-Occupied Housing

• • Moderator
  • Dennis Zimmerman, director of projects, American Tax Policy Institute
    
    Panelists
  • Reid Cramer, research director, Asset Building Program, New America Foundation
  • Ingrid Ellen, associate professor of public policy & urban planning; codirector, NYU Wagner and Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy
  • Todd Sinai, associate professor of real estate, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

2:30–2:45 p.m. - Break

2:45–4:15 p.m. - Session 4: Tax Incentives for Retirement Saving

• • Moderator
  • Rosanne Altshuler, codirector, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; senior fellow, Urban Institute; professor of economics, Rutgers University; former senior economist, President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform
    
  • 
    Panelists
  • Peter Brady, senior economist, Investment Company Institute
  • William Gale, vice president and director of economic policy, Brookings Institution; codirector, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; director, Retirement Security Project, Brookings Institution
  • Alexander Gelber, assistant professor of business and public policy, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania