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

Effects of Reforms of the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction by Income Group and by State

This report considers three options for restructuring the home mortgage interest deduction – replacing the deduction with a 15 percent non-refundable interest credit, reducing the ceiling on debt eligible for an interest subsidy to $500,000, and combining the substitution of the credit for the...

December 6, 2016

Chenxi Lu Eric Toder

Journal Article

Business Taxes

We Need to Raise Taxes for Shareholders and Cut them for Companies

Eric Toder and Alan Viard address corporate tax avoidance in the U.S. and suggest taxing shareholders at a higher rate would prevent companies from shifting their profits abroad.

November 1, 2016

Eric Toder Alan Viard

Research report

Individual Taxes

Distributional Effects of Individual Income Tax Expenditures: An Update

This paper provides estimates of the total cost of non-business tax expenditures claimed on individual tax returns, taking account of interactions among provisions, and of their distributional effects among income groups. We estimate that non-business tax expenditures reduced tax liability by $1...

September 26, 2016

Eric Toder Daniel Berger Yifan Powers

Journal Article

Federal Budget and Economy

Replacing Corporate Revenues with a Mark-to-Market Tax on Shareholder Income

We propose reducing the corporate tax rate to 15 percent and replacing the foregone revenue with a tax at ordinary income rates on the accrued, or mark-to-market, income of American shareholders of publicly traded corporations, accompanied by an imputation credit for U.S. corporate income taxes...

September 1, 2016

Eric Toder Alan Viard

Commentary

Business Taxes

U.S. News & World Report Op-ed: “A Way Forward on Corporate Tax Reform”

Eric Toder and Alan Viard describe the need for corporate tax reform in this U.S. News & World Report opinion editorial.

August 2, 2016

Eric Toder Alan Viard

Brief

Business Taxes

Is Corporation Integration A Good Idea?

In this installment of the Star Forum, experts weigh in on the following question: Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin G.
Hatch, R-Utah, has announced that he is drafting a proposal in favor of corporate integration. Do you think that corporate integration is a good idea? What factors...

June 20, 2016

Eric Toder Alan Viard

Research report

Business Taxes

A Proposal to Reform the Taxation of Corporate Income

This report updates and revises the authors’ 2014 proposal to replace the corporate income tax with taxation at ordinary income rates of dividends and net accrued capital gains of American shareholders. The new proposal retains a 15 percent corporate income tax, gives taxable shareholders a...

June 17, 2016

Eric Toder Alan Viard

Testimony

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Approaches to Business Tax Reform

Institute fellow Eric Toder testified before the US Senate Committee on Finance during a hearing entitled “Navigating Business Tax Reform.” In his testimony, Toder presented his research on the state of the corporate income tax and a review of current legislative proposals. He outlines two...

April 26, 2016

Eric Toder

Research report

Individual Taxes

Effects of a Federal Value-Added Tax on State and Local Budgets

A longstanding concern of state and local governments is that a federal value-added tax (VAT) could shrink sales tax bases. But a federal VAT could have even bigger effects on other revenues and spending through changes in incomes, relative prices, and asset values. To illustrate the range of...

April 21, 2016

James R. Nunns 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