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

Federal Budget and Economy

Analysis of Specific Tax Provisions in President Obama's FY2015 Budget

This document reviews several notable tax proposals in President Obamas fiscal year 2015 Budget. These include expanding the earned income tax credit (EITC) for workers without qualifying children, expanding the child and dependent care tax credit for families with young children, conforming...

June 30, 2014

Elaine Maag James R. Nunns Eric Toder Roberton C. Williams

Research report

Business Taxes

Review of Conference on What the United States Can Learn From the Experience of Countries with Territorial Tax Systems

On February 28, 2014, the Urban Institute hosted an invitational conference on what policymakers in the United States can learn from the experience of other countries with territorial systems for taxing the income of their multinational corporations. Participants included academic experts,...

June 17, 2014

Eric Toder

Research report

Federal Budget and Economy

Tax Policy Issues in Designing a Carbon Tax

A carbon tax is a promising tool for discouraging the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In principle, a well-designed tax could reduce the risk of climate change, minimize the cost of emissions reductions, encourage innovation in low-carbon technologies, and raise new public...

May 27, 2014

Donald Marron Eric Toder

Research report

Individual Taxes

Adding Employer Contributions to Health Insurance to Social Security's Earnings and Tax Base

Including employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) in taxable compensation would increase income and payroll tax receipts, but would also increase Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits by adding ESI to the OASDI earnings base. The increased present value of OASDI...

May 1, 2014

Karen E. Smith Eric Toder

Research report

Business Taxes

Major Surgery Needed: A Call for Structural Reform of the US Corporate Income Tax

A corporate income tax can play a useful role by preventing shareholders from deferring tax on retained corporate profits. The current U.S. corporate income tax is deeply flawed, however, because it relies on definitions of corporate residence and income sourcing that corporations can easily...

April 3, 2014

Eric Toder Alan Viard

Research report

Individual Taxes

Congress Should Phase Out the Mortgage Interest Deduction

The mortgage interest deduction is one of the most expensive federal tax preferences. Supporters claim it stimulates homeownership, which creates broad benefits to society beyond the benefits received by owners. But the case for these external benefits is unproven and the deduction is an...

March 28, 2014

Eric Toder

Research report

Individual Taxes

Evaluating Broad-Based Approaches for Limiting Tax Expenditures

This paper evaluates six options to achieve across-the-board reductions to a group of major exclusions and deductions in the income tax: (1) limiting their tax benefit to a maximum percentage of income; (2) imposing a fixed dollar cap; (3) reducing them by a fixed-percentage amount; (4) limiting...

February 5, 2014

Eric Toder Joseph Rosenberg Amanda Eng

Research report

Business Taxes

Changes in the Organization of Business Activity and Implications for Tax Reform

This paper documents the increased role of pass-through entities and the associated decline in use of the taxable corporate form since the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) and discusses implications for the design of tax policy. We show how significant reductions in the corporate tax rate, absent...

February 5, 2014

George A. Plesko Eric Toder

Research report

Business Taxes

Corporate Income Tax Reform: Dreaming On

Both political parties are calling for corporate tax reform without agreement on specifics. Proposals to broaden the corporate tax base to pay for lower rates or to eliminate taxes on corporate repatriations while trying to prevent income shifting do not address the main problems of taxing...

January 27, 2014

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...

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