Brookings Institution

Better Ways to Link the Affordable Care Act with Tax Filing Season

The Obama Administration, finally acknowledging the seasonal mismatch between the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment season and the ACA’s tax-based penalties for failing to have insurance, decided on Friday to create a new special enrollment season for this year only . The new window will allow

February 23, 2015Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Will Consumers Come To Love Longevity Annuities?

Economists love longevity annuities. But what will it take to get real people to buy them? That’s one of the questions that two panels of retirement experts will tackle at a Brookings Institution event on Thursday. These retirement products work like this: At about age 65 you purchase an insurance

November 4, 2014Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Could EPA’s New Greenhouse Gas Rules Open the Door to a State-based Carbon Tax?

EPA’s proposed tough new standards for power-plant emissions of greenhouse gasses opens the door to new state or regional cap-and-trade systems to limit carbon discharges. It is less clear whether it would go the next step and permit states to impose their own carbon tax. The proposed EPA rules,

June 2, 2014Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Three Options for Better Climate Policy

Thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency has to do something to control them. But the act is ill-suited to controlling a non-toxic global pollutant. The law requires the EPA to set separate emissions

May 28, 2014Adele C. Morris

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Should Tax Reform Be Sold on Values Instead of Economics?

Maybe the best way for tax reformers to get political traction is to focus on values, not economics. That, at least, was one take-away from three political scientists who spoke at a Tax Policy Center panel today. Until now, backers of reform have focused primarily on economic arguments: A reformed

March 31, 2014Howard Gleckman

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Mission Impossible? An Upcoming TPC Panel Will Explore the Politics of Tax Reform

Everyone agrees that the tax code is a mess. So why is it so hard for Congress and the President to fix it? On Monday, the Tax Policy Center will host three top political experts who will explain why reform is such a challenge and how backers could overcome its hurdles. It won’t be easy. As

March 27, 2014Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

TPC’s Upcoming Leadership Change

Dear readers, we have two big pieces of TPC news today . First, I will be moving upstairs (both figuratively and literally) as the Urban...

March 20, 2013Donald Marron

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Why Romney’s Tax Agenda Doesn’t Add Up, Even if it Isn’t a Middle-Class Tax Hike

A new paper by Brookings Institution scholars and Tax Policy Center colleagues Bill Gale, Adam Looney, and Samuel Brown is generating lots of media buzz...

August 2, 2012Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Is the U.S. Tax System Fair?

These days, some people want to impose a new Buffett tax on millionaires while others are outraged that low income people pay no income taxes...

May 3, 2012Howard Gleckman