Brief

Low-income parents use paid preparers more frequently than other parents. This high reliance may be a good thing. Among low-income parents who know about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) those who receive help are more likely to receive the EITC than their peers who prepare their returns...

February 1, 2005
Elaine Maag
Brief

The federal tax treatment of charitable giving and the nonprofit sector is at an inflection point. Following enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, the number of taxpayers who will claim a charitable deduction will decline substantially. What does that mean for charitable giving and the...

November 15, 2018
Joseph RosenbergC. Eugene Steuerle
Brief

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act modestly decreased federal individual income taxes for most low- and middle-income families. However, the federal tax changes interacted with state laws in ways that meant some of these same families could see state tax increases. This brief discusses how implementing...

November 15, 2018
Richard C. AuxierElaine Maag
Brief

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a new federal incentive—Opportunity Zones—to spur investment in poor and undercapitalized communities. Governors (and the mayor of the District of Columbia) have now selected which among the roughly 56 percent of eligible census tracts in the US should be...

May 21, 2018
Brett TheodosBrady Meixell
Brief

The Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018 extends major individual income and estate tax provisions from 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that are currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2025. The bill would reduce federal revenues by $631 billion within the budget window (...

September 12, 2018
Jeffrey RohalyJoseph RosenbergBenjamin R. PageDaniel Berger
Brief

As people live longer, they spend more time in retirement, straining Social Security’s finances. This brief outlines the implications of three approaches to adjusting Social Security for longer lives: making no adjustment, which has applied over most of Social Security’s history; keeping...

August 20, 2018
C. Eugene Steuerle
Brief

Adjusting Social Security retirement ages as people live longer would significantly improve trust fund balances over the long run, though it would have only modest effects in the short term. By the 75th year, Social Security actuaries project that raising the retirement age by indexing it to...

August 20, 2018
C. Eugene Steuerle
Brief

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) missed an opportunity to help low-income childless workers, very low-income families with children, and families with young children – all groups where investments could be particularly productive. The child tax credit (CTC) and earned income tax credit (EITC)...

July 30, 2018
Elaine Maag
Brief

This brief addresses issues relating to the creation of border carbon adjustments (BCAs) as part of a carbon tax. A carbon tax that is imposed only in the U.S. could put American firms at a competitive disadvantage. A BCA could level the playing field so that U.S. and foreign-firms face the same...

July 26, 2018
Adele C. Morris
Brief

Supreme Court rulings in 2013 and 2015 established and expanded rights to same-sex marriage in the U.S. One of the most visible and impactful ways the federal government recognized these new rights was by allowing—indeed, requiring—legally-married same-sex couples to file federal tax returns as...

June 28, 2018
Robin FisherGeof GeeAdam Looney