Skip to main content
  • Experts
  • Events
  • Briefing Book
  • Resources
  • About
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Fiscal Facts
Twitter
Facebook
Logo Site
  • Topics
    • Individual Taxes
    • Business Taxes
    • Federal Budget and Economy
    • State and Local Issues
    • Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms
  • TaxVox Blog
  • Research & Commentary
  • Laws & Proposals
  • Model Estimates
  • Statistics
  • Features
Testimony

Marginal Tax Rates and 21st Century Social Welfare Reform

Joint Hearing of the Subcommittee on Human Resources Committee on Ways and Means AndSubcommittee on NutritionCommittee on Agriculture

C. Eugene Steuerle
June 25, 2015
Download PDFPrint
Share

Primary tasks

  • Overview(active tab)
  • Full Report
  • Media Mentions

Abstract

Families receiving social welfare benefits and tax credits can face implicit marginal tax rates on earnings above 60 percent, especially when they participate in multiple programs. Program designs may penalize work and marriage and create complexity for beneficiaries and program managers. In this congressional testimony, Steuerle argues for comprehensive reforms that consider tax and expenditure programs together and orients program designs toward promoting opportunity, mobility, work, and investment in human, real, and financial capital. Policy options include adopting a maximum marginal tax rate across programs, putting more hidden tax rates into the formal tax code, stronger work requirements, and separating work subsidies from child benefits in federal tax credits.

Research Area

Individual Taxes Low-income households
To reuse content from the Tax Policy Center, visit copyright.com, search for the publications, choose from a list of licenses, and complete the transaction.

Meet the Experts

  • C. Eugene Steuerle
    Institute Fellow and Richard B. Fisher Chair
Research report

New Evidence on The Effect of The TCJA On the Housing Market

Robert McClelland, Livia Mucciolo, Safia Sayed
March 30, 2022
  • Donate Today
  • Topics
  • TaxVox Blog
  • Research & Commentary
  • Laws & Proposals
  • Model Estimates
  • Statistics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Newsletters
Twitter
Facebook
  • © Urban Institute, Brookings Institution, and individual authors, 2022.