Tax Policy Center

tax filing season

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

The New W-4 Tax Withholding Form Is Coming Soon. But Why Is The IRS Even Bothering?

One day soon, the IRS will release its near-final version of the 2020 Form W-4 that workers are supposed to use to calculate their federal...
July 11, 2019Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Janet And Her Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Filing Season (With Apologies To Judith Viorst)

I believe that every person in the tax policy game—from members of the tax-writing committees to research assistants at the Tax Policy Center—should compute their...
May 2, 2019Janet Holtzblatt
: TaxVox

A Last Look At The 2019 Filing Season

You’ve printed out your returns. You are awaiting your refund…or the IRS cashed your balance due check. Now you finally can put that shoebox full...
April 25, 2019Howard Gleckman
: TaxVox

Thirty Years Later: I’m Paying A Lower Tax Rate On More Income

As I finished my federal income tax return for 2018, I could not help but think about a return I filed 30 years ago. What...
April 23, 2019Mark J. Mazur
: TaxVox

How The Partial Government Shutdown Will Affect You This Tax Filing Season

Tax filing season is due to begin in 10 days. Will the IRS will be able to process returns as usual?
January 18, 2019Howard GleckmanRobert A. Weinberger
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

The New 1040 Will Fit On A (Big) Postcard, But It Won’t Make Tax Filing Any Simpler

When tax filing season begins in a few weeks, you’ll likely hear senior Trump Administration officials and some congressional Republicans boasting yet again about how...
January 15, 2019Howard Gleckman
: Daily Deduction

How would Hillary Clinton pay for her tax plan?

Hillary Clinton’s tax proposals would raise $1.1 trillion, mostly from the wealthy. TPC released its analysis of her tax plan yesterday. She’d raise taxes on businesses and high-income households; modestly reduce the incentives to work, save, and invest; and make the tax code more complex. Her
March 3, 2016Renu Zaretsky
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

What Will Happen To Voluntary Tax Compliance If a Budget-constrained IRS Is Not Fixed?

Is the IRS such a mess that the nation’s system of voluntary tax compliance is at risk? Will frustrated taxpayers rebel because they can’t get help with a revenue code they can’t understand? Will aggressive taxpayers who recognize that audit rates have plummeted to the lowest levels in years
April 9, 2015Howard Gleckman
: TaxVox

To Collect Money You Have to Have Money

High-income households can worry even less about being audited this year. Last year, the IRS audited just 7.5 percent of households earning more than $1 million in 2013. That’s the lowest share since 2009 . Its overall individual audit rate was 0.86 percent, the lowest since 2004. The IRS budget
February 25, 2015Renu Zaretsky