The individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) was originally designed to limit the amount of tax sheltering and to assure that high-income filers paid at least some tax. The current AMT, however, has strayed from those original goals and under current law the tax will affect over 23 million...

In a contribution to the New York Times Freakonomics blog, Donald Marron identifies this year's biggest tax policy mistake: Washington's inability to decide what this year's tax law is. While politicians, analysts and the media endlessly debate how expiring tax cuts might affect taxpayers in...

In a contribution to the Christian Science Monitor, Donald Marron discusses the six-pack of expiring temporary tax cuts which could provide the incentive to reshape the tax code and boost the budget.

In a contribution to the Wall Street Journals MarketWatch Inc., Eric Toder and Alan Viard argue that recent highly publicized tax avoidance transactions by U.S. corporations reflect basic flaws in how we tax the income of multinational corporations, and that proposed reforms that maintain...

This brief provides a fresh look at the role of the EITC by utilizing zip-code level data on taxes and demographics. In the following sections, we focus on the relationship between EITC claiming rates (i.e., the percent of tax returns receiving the EITC) and poverty rates, the demographic...

This fact sheet summarizes the key conclusions from a series of briefs aimed at contributing to the knowledge of select tax expenditures—the EITC, MID, and preferential rates on capital gains—by analyzing zip code-level tax data. In particular, the goal of the research was to better characterize...

This brief examines net capital gains realizations by utilizing zip-code level data on taxes and demographics. This data can help shed light on direct beneficiaries of preferential capital gains tax rates beyond the standard distributional tables based solely on income. In particular, this brief...

The case for a carbon tax is strong. A well-designed tax could efficiently reduce the emissions that cause climate change and encourage innovation in cleaner technologies. The resulting revenue could finance tax reductions, spending priorities, or deficit reduction—policies that could offset the...

In this Marketplace commentary, Len Burman, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, says that extending temporary tax measures enables Congress to avoid serious tax reform and hide deep problems.

In 1997 Congress enacted a number of tax benefits directed toward helping middle- and upper-middle income groups meet rising college costs. This shift in goals and strategies raises concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of the evolving federal approach to higher education. This policy...