Following decades of relative stability, income inequality has risen sharply in the United States since the 1970s. Households at the top of the income distribution saw their pretax incomes grow most; similar trends and magnitude are present for after-tax incomes, too.
The panoply of U.S. tax and transfer programs often act in concert to penalize low-income families who increase their work effort or marry, by saddling them with high effective marginal tax rates. These effective marginal tax rates-often the product of multiple, hidden phase-outs in benefit...
Over the past seventy years Congress has enacted dozens of tax and transfer programs, giving little if any attention to the marriage subsidies and penalties that they inadvertently impose. Although the programs affect both rich and poor Americans, the penalties fall most heavily on low- or...
[Investor's Business Daily] In this article, Senior Fellows Rudolph Penner and Eugene Steuerle diagnose the hidden calamity confronting the federal budget and offer a mix of simple, powerful mechanisms to "make the budget ever more responsible instead of ever less." Currently, Social...
For nearly a decade, federal higher education subsidies have increasingly been delivered through the tax code rather than through direct spending programs such as grants, loan subsidies, and work study. This paper reviews the results of using new modules in the TRIM and Tax Policy Center...
The leading policy goal for 401(k)-type plans and Individual Retirement Accounts is to help families accumulate wealth for retirement. Given this objective, policy-makers have created tax penalties for either withdrawing funds too quickly or too slowly. This Tax Fact explores these tax penalties...
The IRS does not administer well items for which it does not have information reporting. Extending information reporting to most charitable contributions would simplify life for most individual givers, improve compliance, and likely be better for the charitable sector as well. An improved...
Eugene Steuerle suggests one ripe area for expanded reporting involving capital gains, particularly from mutual funds and brokerage houses. The IRS could match net gains from information reports with what taxpayers report on their returns, taxpayers would not be faced with multiple choices, they...
Income Taxes and Income Inequality Since 1979
Following decades of relative stability, income inequality has risen sharply in the United States since the 1970s. Households at the top of the income distribution saw their pretax incomes grow most; similar trends and magnitude are present for after-tax incomes, too.
The True Tax Rates Confronting Families With Children
The panoply of U.S. tax and transfer programs often act in concert to penalize low-income families who increase their work effort or marry, by saddling them with high effective marginal tax rates. These effective marginal tax rates-often the product of multiple, hidden phase-outs in benefit...
An International Perspective on Gasoline Taxes
While U.S. gasoline prices were indeed at a historical high after Katrina, they are both declining and much lower than gas prices in other countries.
The Hefty Penalty on Marriage Facing Many Households with Children
Over the past seventy years Congress has enacted dozens of tax and transfer programs, giving little if any attention to the marriage subsidies and penalties that they inadvertently impose. Although the programs affect both rich and poor Americans, the penalties fall most heavily on low- or...
Consumption Taxes in the United States and Abroad
The United States collects much less revenue in consumption taxes than do other OECD countries.
Time To Take Federal Budget Off Autopilot
[Investor's Business Daily] In this article, Senior Fellows Rudolph Penner and Eugene Steuerle diagnose the hidden calamity confronting the federal budget and offer a mix of simple, powerful mechanisms to "make the budget ever more responsible instead of ever less." Currently, Social...
The Distributional Consequences of Federal Assistance for Higher Education
For nearly a decade, federal higher education subsidies have increasingly been delivered through the tax code rather than through direct spending programs such as grants, loan subsidies, and work study. This paper reviews the results of using new modules in the TRIM and Tax Policy Center...
Penalties on IRAs and 401(k)s
The leading policy goal for 401(k)-type plans and Individual Retirement Accounts is to help families accumulate wealth for retirement. Given this objective, policy-makers have created tax penalties for either withdrawing funds too quickly or too slowly. This Tax Fact explores these tax penalties...
Expanded Information Reporting For Charitable Giving
The IRS does not administer well items for which it does not have information reporting. Extending information reporting to most charitable contributions would simplify life for most individual givers, improve compliance, and likely be better for the charitable sector as well. An improved...
Improved Information Reporting for Capital Gains
Eugene Steuerle suggests one ripe area for expanded reporting involving capital gains, particularly from mutual funds and brokerage houses. The IRS could match net gains from information reports with what taxpayers report on their returns, taxpayers would not be faced with multiple choices, they...