Research report

In this report, we examine the different ways that Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and traditional IRAs affect their investors and the government. People who want to shelter more income per dollar deposited in the account, provide larger bequests, or eliminate uncertainty about how...

September 5, 2019
Leonard E. BurmanWilliam G. GaleAaron Krupkin
Research report

This document introduces the goals of Modeling in the Cloud at the Urban Institute. It details how our cloud-based system uses continuous deployment, containers, an interface, and computing and storage components that leverage Amazon Web Services (AWS), then lists lessons learned and critical...

August 30, 2019
Jessica KellyKyle UeyamaAlyssa Harris
Research report

This paper uses a large panel of transaction-level capital asset sales data to investigate whether tax responsiveness varies with economic conditions. We estimate the tax elasticity associated with a large notch in the capital gains tax schedule, when the tax treatment changes from higher,...

September 10, 2019
Timothy DowdRobert McClellandJacob A. Mortenson
Research report

This report analyzes the main provisions of the federal income tax code that provide benefits to families with children, comparing current law with what would be happening had the TCJA not been enacted, and discusses the TCJA’s implications for families of different income levels. On net, almost...

August 16, 2019
Elaine Maag
Research report

This report was updated on August 29, 2019, to correct a citation in box 7. Proposition 111, approved in California in 1990, was incorrectly cited as Proposition 11 with a year of 1991.

Governors, lawmakers, and journalists often decry constitutional and statutory formulas,...

July 30, 2019
Tracy GordonMegan RandallC. Eugene SteuerleAravind Boddupalli
Research report

Fiscal Democracy in the States: How Much Spending is on Autopilot? analyzes how much spending was restricted or partially restricted in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Virginia from 2000 to 2015.

In this appendix, we document our data sources and methods,...

July 30, 2019
Aravind BoddupalliMegan Randall
Research report

State government tax revenues from major sources declined in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter in 2017, mostly because of declines in state income tax revenues. The declines in income tax collection are partially attributable to the disappearing impact of incentives...

July 16, 2019
Lucy Dadayan
Research report

The earned income tax credit provides substantial assistance to low- and moderate-income workers. Benefits tilt heavily to families with children. Prompted in part by the success of the credit and in part by shortcomings in the credit, policymakers, advocates, and analysts have offered up reform...

June 10, 2019
Elaine MaagDonald MarronErin Huffer
Research report

This paper provides estimates of the total cost of and distributional effects of nonbusiness tax expenditures claimed on individual tax returns after enactment of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, taking account of interactions among provisions. Nonbusiness tax expenditures will reduce tax...

June 5, 2019
Eric ToderDaniel Berger
Research report

This report analyzes a straightforward mechanism to mitigate middle-class wage stagnation: a wage tax credit of 100 percent of earnings up to a maximum credit of $10,000, called a universal earned income tax credit. The child tax credit would increase from $2,000 to $2,500 and be made fully...

May 20, 2019
Leonard E. Burman