This report describes the Tax Policy Center’s (TPC’s) improved methodology for analyzing the taxation of pass-through income (income generated through business activities that is taxed at the individual level). Under current law, certain types of pass-through income are taxed at different rates...

This paper describes the updated methodology that the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC) uses to estimate the benefits taxpayers receive from proposals that allow them to save through a qualified retirement savings plan. We present tables comparing how we currently measure these benefits...

The earned income tax credit (EITC) and child tax credit (CTC) provide substantial benefits to working families with children. The EITC also provides modest benefits to workers without custodial children, often called “childless workers” for tax purposes. Together, the credits lift almost 9...

This report describes the Tax Policy Center (TPC) Microsimulation Model’s revamped home mortgage interest deduction (MID) module. The TPC tax model uses the module for simulating proposals that reform the MID. The new MID module improves upon the prior one in accounting for potential changes in...

The Statistics of Income division of the Internal Revenue Service releases an annual public-use file of individual income tax returns that is invaluable to tax analysts in government agencies, nonprofit research organizations, and the private sector. However, the Statistics of Income division...

This report describes the Tax Policy Center (TPC) Microsimulation Model’s revamped health module.  The TPC tax model uses the health module for simulating tax expenditures for health care, analyzing changes in the tax treatment of employer-provided health benefits, and evaluating health-related...

From 2010 through 2019, funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) dropped by 24 percent, after adjustment for inflation. As a consequence, the percentage of taxpayers who were audited fell by nearly half. In this paper, we use confidential IRS data to compare the returns on investments (ROI...

State tax revenues showed continued growth in the first half of fiscal year 2020. State government tax revenues from major sources showed solid year-over-year growth at 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019. Preliminary data show strong growth in January and February before declines in March...

In this report, we compare revenue equivalent alternatives to the $10,000 annual limit on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). We consider options that would limit all itemized deductions, not just the SALT deduction, and an additional option...

State and local government tax revenues showed normal growth in the third quarter of 2019 after declines in the fourth quarter of 2018, much weaker growth in the first quarter of 2019, and robust growth in the second quarter of 2019. Most of the volatility in the prior quarters...