Tax Policy Center Newsletter
June 12, 2008
Tax and fiscal policy will loom large in the next president's domestic policy agenda. Nearly all of the tax cuts enacted since 2001 expire at the end of 2010 and the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) threatens to ensnare tens of millions of Americans. While a permanent fix palatable to both political parties has proven elusive, both candidates have proposed major tax changes. This report describes how we performed our modeling and analysis, outlines the major tax proposals, and discusses the implications of their policies for the revenue raised, taxpayer economic activity, and the distribution of the tax burden.
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View the complete set of revenue and distributional tables
Overall, the federal tax system is highly progressive, but, with the exception of the 2008 stimulus package, the tax cuts passed since 2001 have reduced progressivity. Almost all provisions of these tax cuts are set to expire by the end of 2010, causing effective tax rates to rise across the income spectrum in 2011. This paper summarizes the Tax Policy Center's latest estimates of the distribution of federal taxes for 2008 through 2011.
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Find out what the presidential candidates are proposing, how cap-and-trade differs from a carbon tax, and more. Read all the facts
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