Tax Policy Center

Experts

Research report

In a tax code with no shortage of ironies, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) stands out. Created by Congress in 1969, it was aimed at millionaires, but relatively few millionaires pay it. It is billed as a low-rate levy, but most of its victims face higher taxes because of it. It undermines two...

October 29, 2007
Leonard E. Burman
Brief

In this Washington Post commentary, senior fellow Len Burman explains why the capital gains tax break does more harm than good and why Congress should close the loophole once and for all.

July 30, 2007
Leonard E. Burman
Testimony

The AMT threatens to grow from a footnote in the tax code to a major scourge affecting tens of millions of taxpayers every year. The practice in recent years has been to patch the AMT every year or two on a temporary basis so that not too many people are affected. The latest patch expired at the...

June 27, 2007
Leonard E. Burman
Research report

This paper proposes to expand Medicare to cover comprehensive long-term care services, including home care and custodial nursing home care. These services would be financed by a surcharge on federal income taxes. Unlike the regressive payroll tax that finances Medicares hospitalization coverage...

June 22, 2007
Richard W. JohnsonLeonard E. Burman
Research report

The paper describes the basic features of the President's plan and evaluates the extent to which it would meet its stated goals of expanding health insurance coverage and restraining healthcare spending. The basic approach would improve the market for health insurance, but inadequate attention...

January 23, 2007
Leonard E. BurmanJason Furman
Brief

The individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) was originally designed to limit the amount of tax sheltering and to assure that high-income filers paid at least some tax. The current AMT, however, has strayed from those original goals and under current law the tax will affect over 23 million...

January 19, 2007
Leonard E. BurmanGreg LeisersonWilliam G. Gale
Commentary

In this commentary for public radio's Marketplace program, Len Burman, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, explains why automatically adjusting the minimum wage for inflation benefits more than just low-wage workers.

January 9, 2007
Leonard E. Burman
Brief

In this Marketplace commentary, Len Burman, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, says that extending temporary tax measures enables Congress to avoid serious tax reform and hide deep problems.

December 8, 2006
Leonard E. Burman
Testimony

The testimony discusses the usefulness of dynamic analysis and dynamic scoring for the policymaking process. Burman concludes that dynamic scoring is not feasible because of lack of knowledge about how deficits will be offset, uncertainty about key parameters in economic models, and inherent...

September 13, 2006
Leonard E. Burman

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