Expert

Eric Toder

Nonresident Fellow

Before joining Urban, I had a long career in government, including three years as a political appointee heading the staff of tax policy economists in the Treasury Department. I joined Urban after leaving government service because it is a place where I could continue to do high-quality research on important issues, surrounded by great colleagues. I value the commitment to nonpartisan and independent analysis, and the encouragement Urban provides to seek better ways of communicating research findings and basic facts about the economy and policy issues to non-technical audiences.

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Primary tasks

Research report

Individual Taxes

Methodology for Distributing a VAT

The Tax Policy center has developed a new method for estimating the distributional effects among income groups of a broad-based consumption tax, such as a value-added tax (VAT). The new method provides separate measures of the long-run and transitional effects of introducing a VAT. In the long-...

April 12, 2011

Eric Toder James R. Nunns Joseph Rosenberg

Testimony

Federal Budget and Economy

Responses to Tax Incentives in a Complex and Uncertain Tax Law

Eric Toder's testimony before the before the Senate Finance Committee on how tax law complexity limits the effectiveness of tax incentives.

March 30, 2011

Eric Toder

Research report

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Tax Proposals in the 2012 Budget

President Obama's 2012 Budget contains a number of tax provisions that would cut taxes for low- and middle-income households and raise taxes on wealthier taxpayers. This resource guide describes the tax proposals, offers more detailed commentary on key provisions, and links to tables showing the...

March 28, 2011

Benjamin H. Harris Elaine Maag Donald Marron James R. Nunns Joseph Rosenberg Kim S. Rueben Eric Toder Roberton C. Williams

Brief

Federal Budget and Economy

Tax Reform In An Era Of Deficits

Tax reform should focus on three goals:1) reducing needless complexity, 2) reducing backdoor spending through the tax code, and 3) reforming rules for taxing saving and investment to make our tax law more suitable for a globalized economy. This note summarizes steps that should be taken and how...

February 17, 2011

Eric Toder

Commentary

Business Taxes

Closing Loopholes Won't Be Simple

New York Times's Room for Debate: The United States has one of the world's highest corporate tax rates, but many large US corporations pay little US tax. The main problem is that it is hard for one country to tax entities that transcend national boundaries. A better approach would tax...

February 3, 2011

Eric Toder

Brief

Business Taxes

Closing Loopholes Won't Be Simple

New York Times' Room for Debate: The United States has one of the world's highest corporate tax rates, but many large U.S. corporations pay little U.S. tax. Eliminating special interest loopholes could pay for some, but not much reduction in the corporate rate. The main problem is that it...

February 3, 2011

Eric Toder

Research report

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Distribution Estimates for Bipartisan Policy Center Tax Reform Proposal

We link below to distribution tables for the tax reform proposal put forward by the Bipartisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force on November 17, 2010. We provide estimates for the plan as it would look in 2022, 10 years after its proposed enactment, evaluated at 2018 income levels. We...

November 17, 2010

Eric Toder

Research report

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

UPDATED: Distributional Estimates for Several Variants of Option 1 of the Bowles-Simpson "Chairmen's Mark"

Originally posted November 16, 2010. Updated on November 18, 2010, to include analyses in which only the income tax expenditures are eliminated but payroll tax expenditures remain. Updated again on November 24, 2010, to include an additional option that would retain 80 percent of the tax...

November 10, 2010

Eric Toder Daniel Baneman

Research report

Individual Taxes

Tax Savings From an Additional Child

Provisions in the tax law that benefit families with children include the child tax credit, personal exemptions for dependent children, the earned income tax credit, availability of head of household filing status, the child and dependent care credit, and tuition tax credits and deductions for...

November 5, 2010

Eric Toder

From TaxVox

Federal Budget and Economy
Examining the Tax Rules at Risk in SCOTUS Moore v. US Case
October 11, 2023 –
Later this year, the US Supreme Court will hear Moore v. United States , a case in which the plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of...
Individual Taxes
A Carbon Tax is Not the Solution to Global Climate Change
October 5, 2021 –
The definition of insanity, according to a famous quotation (often mis-attributed to Albert Einstein) is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different...
Federal Budget and Economy
Tax Expenditures Remain A Significant Share of The Economy
April 20, 2021 –
Despite years of widespread discussion among lawmakers about the need to broaden the federal income tax base, tax expenditures have remained remarkably stable as a...
Individual Taxes
How Would Paydown Affect The Reform Of Home Mortgage Interest Deduction?
July 21, 2020 –
Reforming the mortgage interest deduction (MID) could raise federal tax revenue and make the tax system more progressive. But some taxpayers, especially those with high...
Business Taxes
Is A Modified Destination-Based Income Tax The Solution For Taxing Global Multinational Corporations?
April 15, 2020 –
Tax authorities around the world are in an increasingly contentious battle over how to tax the income of multinational corporations . In 2017, the US...
Federal Budget and Economy
What Tax Experts Can Contribute: Lessons from World War II
March 31, 2020 –
The United States is facing an immense human tragedy. According to one influential analysis , up to 2 million Americans could die from COVID-19 in...
State and Local Issues
States Adopt Some Federal Tax Expenditures And Add Others
January 24, 2020 –
In fiscal year 2020, Georgia will spend nearly $500 million in film and television tax credits in return for the promise of new jobs and...
The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Reduced Tax Expenditures But By Much Less Than The 1986 Tax Reform Act
December 10, 2019 –
For years, tax reformers have advocated reducing marginal tax rates, broadening the tax base, and eliminating provisions that provide special benefits to select forms of...
What The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Means For Tax Expenditures
June 5, 2019 –
In a new paper , my former Tax Policy Center colleague Daniel Berger and I calculate that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)...
Despite the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Federal Tax System is Becoming More Progressive Over Time
September 18, 2018 –
The Tax Policy Center’s newly released baseline tables tell a nuanced and somewhat paradoxical story. For over a decade, legislative changes and real income growth...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms
In A Trade War, The Enemy Is Us
July 23, 2018 –
Walt Kelly ’s comic strip character Pogo said: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” It seems a particularly apt metaphor for the...
Distributional Effects of a Carbon Tax Depend on How the Revenue is Spent
July 19, 2018 –
Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy just released a series of papers on how a carbon tax would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, affect economic...
Business Taxes
Is the TCJA An Accountants’ Bonanza Or Nightmare?
June 12, 2018 –
In a Harvard Business Review article last December, I described how the complex and poorly vetted provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)...
Business Taxes
Eliminate The Deduction For Qualified Business Income And Require Most Firms To Be Taxed As Pass-Throughs
June 4, 2018 –
The most problematic provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) may be its 20 percent deduction for qualified business income (QBI) of owners...
1986 RIP: Different Tax Rates for Different Income Sources
March 16, 2018 –
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was the most far-reaching tax legislation since the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86). It also put...
Business Taxes
Explaining the TCJA’s International Reforms
February 2, 2018 –
In a blog post introducing a recent article I wrote for AEI’s Economic Perspectives, AEI’s Stan Veuger describes this approach as replacing “subdued worldwide corporate...
Comparing the House and Senate Tax Cut Bills to the GOP Presidential Campaign Promises
November 30, 2017 –
The New York Times reports that some Republican senators are clamoring for larger tax cuts, especially for pass-through business income. The Times says that while...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms
The House Ways and Means Tax Bill Would Raise the National Debt to 123 percent of GDP by 2037
November 16, 2017 –
The Tax Policy Center estimates that the House Ways and Means Committee’s version of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) would increase the ratio...
Business Taxes
Navigating the confusing language of international tax reform
December 14, 2016 –
There has been considerable confusion about how to describe the treatment of international taxation in corporate tax reform plans. The House GOP blueprint , for...
Individual Taxes
How a mortgage tax credit would affect borrowers of different incomes in different states
December 7, 2016 –
This post is part of the Tax Policy Center’s new series, Tax Line , which digs into the data behind the day’s most pressing tax...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms
Trump Adviser Comments on Taxes and Trade Turn Economic Theory On Its Head
October 14, 2016 –
Yesterday’s presentation by Donald Trump's economic adviser, Peter Navarro, at the Tax Policy Center’s discussion of the presidential candidate tax plans reminded me of a...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms
Trump’s Phony Claim about Carried Interest
October 10, 2016 –
When asked in last night’s debate about what he would do to make sure the rich pay their fair share of taxes, Donald Trump said...
Federal Budget and Economy
A value added tax is not a trade barrier
September 28, 2016 –
Donald Trump peddled an economic fallacy in Monday night’s Presidential debate by suggesting that Mexico’s value added tax, or VAT, gives its producers an advantage...
Business Taxes
Treasury’s New Regulations are an Important Shift in U.S. Tax Policy
April 12, 2016 –
Treasury’s new regulations limit the ability of foreign-based multinationals to reduce taxable profits on U.S.-source income. This is a major...
Business Taxes
Corporate Tax Inversions are Only Part of the Problem
December 10, 2015 –
The planned merger of Pfizer and Allergen to create an Irish parent company, a transaction often called an inversion, has rekindled concerns about U...

Experts

Eric Toder

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From TaxVox