Tax Reform: Lessons From History

This article was published as part of the Tax Note series "The Legacy of the TRA '86." As current budget pressure forces us to consider tax reform as a means of raising revenue, past reforms provide us some valuable lessons. Reforms typically begin with a consensus that something is broken and that while we disagree on the perfect solution, no one favors the unequal justice, inefficiency, or complexity in our tax code. It was that type of bipartisan agreement that led to past successful tax reforms, such as in 1986, 1969, and 1954. Similar ideas are relevant today.

Reprinted with permission from Tax Analysts