Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle considers the future of the single business tax--it could unwind only over a long period of time. He suggests that any expansion is likely to go hand-in-hand with a reduced reliance on other taxes. It could give states more elastic and stable tax sources. At the same
The prevalent theme in recent discussions of stimulus is that the risk of doing too little exceeds the risk that we shall do too much. But we must ask how much of too much we can tolerate. The risks of overdoing it are severe and are not emphasized enough in the current discussion. The main worries
Citizens pay an overall marriage penalty when their combined social welfare benefits less taxes are lower when they are a married couple than when they are two single individuals. Because marriage is optional, marriage penalties or subsidies are assessed primarily for taking wedding vows, not for
In 2009, the federal deficit will be larger as a share of the economy than at any time since the 1940s. After 2009, we project an average deficit of $1 trillion per year for the next 10 years, under optimistic assumptions. The longer-run picture is even bleaker, with a fiscal gap of 7-9 percent of
Hillary Clinton proposes raising taxes on high-income taxpayers, modifying taxation of multinational corporations, repealing fossil fuel tax incentives, and increasing estate and gift taxes. Her proposals would increase revenue by $1.1 trillion over the next decade. Nearly all of the tax increases
The U.S. faces a large medium-term federal budget deficit and an unsustainable long-term fiscal gap. Left unattended, these shortfalls will hobble and eventually cripple the economy. The only plausible way to close the gap is through a combination of spending cuts and/or tax increases. This paper
In this report, we use a panel of anonymized data derived from income tax returns filed between 1999 and 2010 and Social Security benefits data to study how the labor force participation of retirement-age couples responds to taxation. We examine the responses of primary and secondary earners of a
Despite the intensity of the debate over President Bush's tax policies, all political factions seem to agree that tax and spending programs should, on average, distribute economic resources from the rich to the poor. The arguments involve the amount of redistribution; only fringe groups ask whether
The U.S. faces substantial and unsustainable budget deficits, which will require tax increases and spending cuts to resolve. A carbon tax could raise revenues, with several positive effects: it would improve environmental outcomes, increase economic efficiency, and allow the elimination of selected
In this paper, part of the Carbon Tax Research Initiative led by Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy, we estimate how a carbon tax would affect the distribution of tax burdens across US taxpayers. We consider three carbon tax scenarios that would price carbon at roughly $14, $
This report finds that both federal and state income taxes are generally progressive but (1) state systems are much less progressive than the federal system and (2) the degree of progressivity varies widely among the states. Federal income taxes became more progressive following 2012 legislation
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 moderate
American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Individual income tax relief. Created the Making Work Pay Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit. Increased the EITC rate for families with three or more children to 45 percent; increased phaseout range for married couples to $5,000 over that for single/head of household filers.
Recent large federal budget surpluses have spurred debate on how best to use the money. Some see surpluses as an opportunity to pay down the federal debt, to expand programs to meet such social needs as health care and education, or to secure the future of Social Security. Others propose returning
This paper examines, individually and jointly, an excise tax on carbon and an expansion of EITC benefits to childless workers. We estimate how an illustrative tax of $32 per ton of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion would burden households differentially across the income distribution, how it could
To respond effectively to state and federal policy changes, city leaders, non-profit service providers, advocates, and researchers all need accurate data on how federal funds flow to local governments. Unfortunately, those data are spread across multiple sources that are often indecipherable or
One possible explanation for the difficulty in controlling the budget is that a major component of spending-tax expenditures-receives privileged status. It is treated as tax cuts rather than spending. This paper explores the implications of that classification and illustrates how it can lead to
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s tax proposal would (1) repeal the corporate income tax, payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and estate and gift taxes; (2) collapse the seven individual income tax rates to a single 10 percent rate, increase the standard deduction, and eliminate most
This paper presents evidence from a randomized field experiment to evaluate the longterm impact of an incentive for household saving. We examine the effect on homeownership of an Individual Development Account (IDA) program which ran from 1998 to 2003 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The IDA program provided
State government tax revenues fluctuated wildly throughout state fiscal year 2019, which ended on June 30th in 46 states. The fluctuations were largely related to income tax receipts and caused by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Overall, state tax revenues showed robust growth in the second quarter of
Social Security's original mission was to protect society's most vulnerable from poverty. Figuring out who needs protection and how much, however, is not so simple. There are many sources of redistribution in Social Security, from rich to poor, from shorter lived to longer lived, and across
This analysis measures the revenue and distributional impacts of three proposals to limit tax expenditures for higher-income households: the Obama Administration's plan to cap the value of itemized deductions at 28 percent; an effective minimum tax (EMT) to ensure that tax liability is at least a