The Tax Policy Center's
Briefing Book
A citizen’s guide to the fascinating (though often complex) elements of the US tax system.
Tax Policy Center Briefing Book
Table of Contents
- Chapters
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Some Background
- Federal Budget
- Federal Budget Process
- Federal Budget Outlook
- How accurate are long-run budget projections?
- What have budget trends been over the short and long term?
- How much spending is uncontrollable?
- What are tax extenders?
- How did the TCJA affect the federal budget outlook?
- What options would increase federal revenues?
- What does it mean for a government program to be off-budget?
- Taxes and the Economy
- How do taxes affect the economy in the short run?
- How do taxes affect the economy in the long run?
- What are dynamic scoring and dynamic analysis?
- Do tax cuts pay for themselves?
- On what do economists agree and disagree about the effects of taxes on economic growth?
- How might the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affect economic output?
- Economic Stimulus
- Distribution of Tax Burdens
- How are federal taxes distributed?
- Are federal taxes progressive?
- How should progressivity be measured?
- What is the difference between marginal and average tax rates?
- What criticisms are levied against standard distributional analysis?
- How should distributional tables be interpreted?
- Who bears the burden of the corporate income tax?
- How do financing methods affect the distributional analyses of tax cuts?
- How do taxes affect income inequality?
- Tax Expenditures
- Tax Gap and Tax Shelters
- History of the Tax Code
- Key Elements of the U.S. Tax System
- Individual Income Tax
- What is the standard deduction?
- What are itemized deductions and who claims them?
- How did the TCJA change the standard deduction and itemized deductions?
- What are personal exemptions?
- How do federal income tax rates work?
- What are tax credits and how do they differ from tax deductions?
- How do phaseouts of tax provisions affect taxpayers?
- Capital Gains and Dividends
- AMT
- Taxes and the Family
- Taxes and the Poor
- How does the federal tax system affect low-income households?
- What is the difference between refundable and nonrefundable credits?
- Can poor families benefit from the child tax credit?
- Why do low-income families use tax preparers?
- How does the earned income tax credit affect poor families?
- What are error rates for refundable credits and what causes them?
- How do IRS audits affect low-income families?
- Taxes and Retirement Saving
- What types of nonemployer-sponsored retirement accounts are available?
- What are Roth individual retirement accounts?
- How does the availability of tax-favored retirement saving affect national saving?
- What’s the difference between front-loaded and back-loaded retirement accounts?
- What is an automatic 401(k)?
- How might low- and middle-income households be encouraged to save?
- Taxes and Charitable Giving
- What is the tax treatment of charitable contributions?
- What entities are tax-exempt?
- Who benefits from the deduction for charitable contributions?
- How would various proposals affect incentives for charitable giving?
- How large are individual income tax incentives for charitable giving?
- How did the TCJA affect incentives for charitable giving?
- Taxes and Health Care
- How much does the federal government spend on health care?
- Who has health insurance coverage?
- What tax provisions subsidize the cost of health care?
- How does the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance work?
- What are premium tax credits?
- What is the Cadillac tax?
- What tax changes did the Affordable Care Act make?
- How do health savings accounts work?
- How do flexible spending accounts for health care expenses work?
- What are health reimbursement arrangements and how do they work?
- Taxes and Homeownership
- Taxes and Education
- Tax Complexity
- Wealth Transfer Taxes
- Payroll Taxes
- What are the major federal payroll taxes, and how much money do they raise?
- What is the unemployment insurance trust fund, and how is it financed?
- What are the Social Security trust funds, and how are they financed?
- Are the Social Security trust funds real?
- What is the Medicare trust fund, and how is it financed?
- Excise Taxes
- Taxes, Energy, and the Environment
- Tax Incentives for Economic Development
- Taxes and Multinational Corporations
- How does the current system of international taxation work?
- How do US corporate income tax rates and revenues compare with other countries’?
- What are the consequences of the new US international tax system?
- How does the tax system affect US competitiveness?
- How would formulary apportionment work?
- What are inversions, and how will TCJA affect them?
- What is a territorial tax and does the United States have one now?
- What is the TCJA repatriation tax and how does it work?
- What is the TCJA base erosion and anti-abuse tax and how does it work?
- What is global intangible low-taxed income and how is it taxed under the TCJA?
- What is foreign-derived intangible income and how is it taxed under the TCJA?
- Individual Income Tax
- How Could We Improve the Federal Tax System?
- Comprehensive Tax Reform
- Broad-Based Income Tax
- National Retail Sales Tax
- What is a national retail sales tax?
- What would and would not be taxed under a national retail sales tax?
- What would the tax rate be under a national retail sales tax?
- What is the difference between a tax-exclusive and a tax-inclusive sales tax rate?
- Who bears the burden of a national retail sales tax?
- Would tax evasion and avoidance be a significant problem for a national retail sales tax?
- What would be the effect of a national retail sales tax on economic growth?
- What transition rules would be needed for a national retail sales tax?
- Would a national retail sales tax simplify the tax code?
- What has been the state and local experience with retail sales taxes?
- What is the experience of other countries with national retail sales taxes?
- What did the President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform say about the national retail sales tax?
- Value Added Tax (VAT)
- What is a VAT?
- How would a VAT be collected?
- What would be taxed under a VAT?
- What would the rate be under a VAT?
- What is the difference between zero rating and exempting a good in the VAT?
- Who would bear the burden of a VAT?
- Is the VAT a money machine?
- How would small businesses be treated under a VAT?
- What is the Canadian experience with a VAT
- Why is the VAT administratively superior to a retail sales tax?
- What is the history of a VAT?
- How are different consumption taxes related?
- Other Comprehensive Tax Reforms
- Recent Comprehensive Tax Reform Proposals
- Simple, Fair, and Pro-Growth: Proposals to Fix America’s Tax System, Report of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, November 2005
- The Moment of Truth: Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, December 2010
- Debt Reduction Task Force, Restoring America's Future, Bipartisan Policy Center, November 2010
- The Tax Reform Act of 2014: Fixing Our Broken Tax Code So That It Works for American Families and Job Creators, House Ways and Means Committee
- The Graetz Competitive Tax Plan: Update for 2015
- Return-Free Tax Filing
- What is it return-free tax filing and how would it work?
- What are the benefits of return-free tax filing?
- What are the drawbacks of return-free tax filing?
- How would the tax system need to change with return-free tax filing?
- Who would qualify for return-free tax filing?
- Would return-free tax filing raise taxes?
- What was the experience in California with return-free tax filing?
- What other countries use return-free tax filing?
- Glossary
- Glossary
- Introduction
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Chapter 1Introduction
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Chapter 2Some Background
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Chapter 3Key Elements of the U.S. Tax System
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Chapter 4How Could We Improve the Federal Tax System?
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Chapter 5Glossary