Benjamin H. Harris

Primary tasks

Research report

Evaluating Tax Expenditures

Increased demand for better use of evidence in policymaking has sparked bipartisan support for better evaluation of federal spending programs. Tax expenditures, spending-like subsidies embedded in the tax code, cost taxpayers roughly as much as domestic discretionary programs, yet receive little...

July 10, 2018

Benjamin H. Harris C. Eugene Steuerle Caleb Quakenbush

Research report

Federal Budget and Economy

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: A Missed Opportunity to Establish a Sustainable Tax Code

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 leaves many promises of tax reform unfulfilled. In this paper, we examine the plan’s prospects to boost future growth, and discuss fundamental reforms that would boost the stock of capital and generate sustained, long-term growth. After making the case that the...

May 24, 2018

Benjamin H. Harris Adam Looney

Brief

Individual Taxes

Net Capital Gains Across Zip Codes

This brief examines net capital gains realizations by utilizing zip-code level data on taxes and demographics. This data can help shed light on direct beneficiaries of preferential capital gains tax rates beyond the standard distributional tables based solely on income. In particular, this brief...

December 12, 2014

Benjamin H. Harris Lucie Parker

Brief

Individual Taxes

Factsheet: Beneficiaries of Tax Expenditures Across Zip Codes

This fact sheet summarizes the key conclusions from a series of briefs aimed at contributing to the knowledge of select tax expenditures—the EITC, MID, and preferential rates on capital gains—by analyzing zip code-level tax data. In particular, the goal of the research was to better characterize...

December 12, 2014

Benjamin H. Harris Aurite Werman

Brief

Federal Budget and Economy

The Mortgage Interest Deduction Across Zip Codes

This brief examines characteristics of the mortgage interest deduction by utilizing zip-code level data on taxes and demographics. In the following sections, we focus on the relationship between the mortgage interest deduction and Adjusted Gross Income, the demographic characteristics of zip...

December 5, 2014

Benjamin H. Harris Lucie Parker

Brief

Individual Taxes

EITC Claiming Across Zip Codes

This brief provides a fresh look at the role of the EITC by utilizing zip-code level data on taxes and demographics. In the following sections, we focus on the relationship between EITC claiming rates (i.e., the percent of tax returns receiving the EITC) and poverty rates, the demographic...

December 2, 2014

Benjamin H. Harris Lucie Parker

Research report

Individual Taxes

Flattening Tax Incentives for Retirement Saving

Under current law, a large share of tax benefits for retirement saving accrues to high-income employees. We simulate the short- and long-term effect of three policy options for flattening tax incentives and increasing retirement savings for low- and middle-income workers. Our results show that...

June 30, 2014

Barbara Butrica Benjamin H. Harris Pamela Perun C. Eugene Steuerle

Research report

Individual Taxes

Student Loans Rising

The share of households with student loans rose from 9 percent in 1989 to 19 percent by 2010, while inflation-adjusted median student debt rose by more than 50 percent. Rising debt burdens can affect numerous outcomes. For those in school, loans may affect completion rates, choice of major, and...

May 14, 2014

William G. Gale Benjamin H. Harris Bryant Renaud Katherine Rodihan

Research report

Individual Taxes

Tax Subsidies for Asset Development: An Overview and Distributional Analysis

The federal government channels much of its support for asset building through the tax code. Asset-building tax subsidies, primarily for homeownership and retirement saving, totaled $384 billion in 2013. This report reviews federal tax expenditures for housing, retirement, savings, business...

March 7, 2014

Benjamin H. Harris C. Eugene Steuerle Signe-Mary McKernan Caleb Quakenbush Caroline Ratcliffe

From TaxVox

Individual Taxes
Making Saving Incentives More Equitable
July 8, 2014 –
Tax expenditures for retirement saving top $100 billion annually—from 401(k)-type plans ($61.4 billion) to IRAs ($17.6 billion) to tax preferences...
Individual Taxes
Tax Expenditures for Asset-Building: Costly, Regressive, and Ineffective
April 9, 2014 –
Most federal subsidies aimed at helping households accumulate financial and tangible assets are delivered through tax expenditures—spending through...
Individual Taxes
Stark Variation in Taxpayer Use of Itemized Deductions, County by County
March 7, 2014 –
Taxpayer use of itemized deductions varies widely by location, according to a new analysis of 2007 IRS data. In about one in ten counties, 11...
State and Local Issues
Variation in EITC Take-up, County by County
January 31, 2014 –
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of our nation’s most effective anti-poverty policies, bringing 10.1 million families out of poverty in 2012 ...
Individual Taxes
State of the Union Speech Promotes New Retirement Savings Vehicles
January 29, 2014 –
In this year’s State of the Union Address, President Obama announced a new retirement savings account for workers whose employers do not offer any form...
Federal Budget and Economy
Rethinking Homeownership Subsidies
January 6, 2014 –
Tax expenditures for homeownership, such as deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes and the partial exclusion for capital gains on the sale of a...
Individual Taxes
The US Income Tax Burden, County by County
December 16, 2013 –
Differences in income and other characteristics mean that federal income tax burdens vary substantially across counties. While the median federal income tax burden across counties...
Federal Budget and Economy
Why the Next Debt Limit Debacle Might be Worse
December 3, 2013 –
Congress’s latest flirtation with debt-limit default caused barely a ripple in the financial markets. Rates on short-term Treasuries spiked in early October, before quickly subsiding...
State and Local Issues
Sorting Through The Property Tax Burden
November 18, 2013 –
When it comes to property taxes, location matters. In a new TPC report , my colleague Brian David Moore and I look at just how...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms
What Changes in the Mortgage Deduction Would Mean for Home Prices
June 5, 2013 –
Tax preferences for housing are under fire, with mounting evidence that these preferences are inefficient , unequal , and too expensive to warrant a place...
Federal Budget and Economy
Why State and Local Governments are Hurting the Recovery
April 23, 2013 –
Until the Great Recession, state and local governments played a remarkably constant role through down business cycles. For four decades, when the economy turned sour,...
Federal Budget and Economy
The President’s Plan to Cap Retirement Saving Benefits
April 12, 2013 –
The president’s FY 2014 Budget would limit tax benefits for workers with high-balance retirement saving accounts. Although critics call the plan a blow to workers’...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms
Hiking Dividend Taxes to Pay for a Corporate Rate Cut
April 1, 2013 –
Finland’s government recently announced a broad fiscal reform package that cuts corporate tax rates—financed in part by higher taxes on corporate dividends. The plan makes...
Individual Taxes
Automatic Retirement Saving Inches Forward
March 22, 2013 –
Automatic enrollment is slowly gaining steam as the choice strategy to encourage retirement saving. A bold plan in California would eventually make the practice widespread...
Federal Budget and Economy
Five reasons Why the Sequester’s Automatic Spending Cuts are Bad Policy
February 15, 2013 –
In two weeks, about $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts will begin to kick in, a testament to the inability of policymakers to reach a...
Individual Taxes
Deficits After ATRA
January 31, 2013 –
The American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) , the New Year’s legislation that effectively forestalled the bulk of the January 2013 fiscal cliff, probably staved off...
Federal Budget and Economy
The government and short-run economic growth
January 31, 2013 –
Economic growth estimates released yesterday were not good news : the economy contracted in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2009, albeit by...
Federal Budget and Economy
Japan (Re)Tries Fiscal Stimulus
January 15, 2013 –
Last week Japan announced a massive stimulus package designed to jumpstart its slumping economy, which is in the midst of its fifth recession in 15...
Individual Taxes
Should Louisiana Dump Its Income Tax for a Bigger Sales Tax?
January 14, 2013 –
Last week Louisiana’s Republican Governor Bobby Jindal proposed replacing the state’s individual income and corporate taxes with a higher sales tax. While details are scarce,...
Federal Budget and Economy
Why the Google Test Fails
June 8, 2011 –
By Bill Gale and Ben Harris In Tuesday’s speech at the University of Chicago, former Minnesota Governor and newly announced presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty took...
Individual Taxes
Taxes and Housing Prices
April 21, 2010 –
The combination of the recently-passed health care legislation and the President’s proposed rollback of the Bush tax cuts for upper-income taxpayers would sharply boost tax rates on the wealthy. This is great news for the high-end real estate market. It may seem counterintuitive, but raising taxes on those in the top brackets could increase urban house prices by as much as 10 percent, and even more in east and west coast cities where homes are most expensive. The drivers of this windfall: higher top rates on ordinary income and hikes in capital gains taxes. Obama’s proposal to limit the benefit of itemized deductions to 28 percent could more than reverse this housing windfall, but that measure is unlikely to win congressional approval.
Individual Taxes
Is the Corporate Tax Progressive?
February 22, 2010 –
Economists can't seem to agree about whether the corporate tax falls on the rich or the poor. We pretty much concur that sales and payroll taxes are regressive and that income and estate taxes are progressive, but we argue endlessly about whether the burden of the corporate tax falls more on the wealthy or the middle class.
Individual Taxes
Is China Turning Bearish on the U.S. Treasury?
February 19, 2010 –
Is America's banker turning bearish? This week, Japan eclipsed China as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities. This news comes one week after it was reported that China may sell-off some of its U.S. Treasury holdings to punish Washington for selling weapons to Taiwan. These developments offer more evidence that Beijing is growing less willing to continue buying and holding U.S. debt.
Individual Taxes
The Estate Tax and the Economy
June 18, 2009 –
Unless Congress acts in the next six months, the estate tax will be repealed in 2010 and then revert to its 2001 parameters — substantially more burdensome than current levels — in 2011. This bizarre policy makes it very likely that Congress will reform the levy by the end of this year, but it’s unclear exactly how.
Individual Taxes
How Would Small Businesses Fare Under Obama’s Tax Plan?
April 29, 2009 –
Earlier this week the Washington Post published an article painting the Administration’s tax plan as one that would burden small business owners with soaring tax payments. In stark contrast, a Post editorial run just two weeks earlier—“The Small Business Myth”—debunked claims that Obama’s plan unfairly targeted business owners. Which Washington Post piece is right?

Experts

Benjamin H. Harris

Social Media

Primary tasks

From TaxVox