A bipartisan consensus favors public policy initiatives to expand health insurance coverage. This paper summarizes new CPS data on health insurance coverage for the nonelderly and discusses the issues involved in subsidizing health insurance. We outline a tax credit option designed to diminish...
This paper presents alternative measures of actual and projected net benefits (benefits minus payroll taxes) from the Old and Survivors Insurance (OASI) component of Social Security, based on results from a microsimulation model. The simulations take into account marital histories, income, and...
The bias against tax simplification is strong, and history does not provide many examples of success. Nonetheless, conventional wisdom on the history lesson may be mistaken.
When a nonprofit engages in business activities unrelated to its nonprofit purposes, taxability is usually not a question of choice; various laws and regulations require that the organization pay taxes on this income and, typically, on sales and property. For related activities, however, a...
[Financial Times] Just how big is the tax cut under debate in the US? How big in relation to the economy and current tax collections? And how big compared with past cuts? We know that President George W. Bush and the House of Representatives want $1,600 billion of tax cuts over 10 years,...
[National Public Radio (NPR)]Urban Institute Senior Fellow and former Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis, Len Burman, expounds upon the earned income tax credit (EITC) as he recounts his experiences with the confusing EITC while helping a single mother with her taxes....
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle mentions two items that seem to be just below the radar screen of most of those following the tax cut debate: the adjustment of taxation of social security benefits and increases in child credits.
The Department of the Treasury recently released a distribution table, which shows how income tax liabilities would change under President Bush's tax plan. This release, a positive step, represents the Administration's acknowledgment that the distribution of tax burdens is important in assessing...
First, Do No Harm: Designing Tax Incentives for Health Insurance
A bipartisan consensus favors public policy initiatives to expand health insurance coverage. This paper summarizes new CPS data on health insurance coverage for the nonelderly and discusses the issues involved in subsidizing health insurance. We outline a tax credit option designed to diminish...
Lifetime Distributional Effects of Social Security Retirement Benefits
This paper presents alternative measures of actual and projected net benefits (benefits minus payroll taxes) from the Old and Survivors Insurance (OASI) component of Social Security, based on results from a microsimulation model. The simulations take into account marital histories, income, and...
The Optimistic View on Simplification
The bias against tax simplification is strong, and history does not provide many examples of success. Nonetheless, conventional wisdom on the history lesson may be mistaken.
When Nonprofits Conduct Exempt Activities as Taxable Enterprises
When a nonprofit engages in business activities unrelated to its nonprofit purposes, taxability is usually not a question of choice; various laws and regulations require that the organization pay taxes on this income and, typically, on sales and property. For related activities, however, a...
Opportunity at Hand: Revising the Child Credit
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle describes how a child credit revision has a chance to achieve bipartisan support.
Keeping the Bush Tax Cut in Proportion
[Financial Times] Just how big is the tax cut under debate in the US? How big in relation to the economy and current tax collections? And how big compared with past cuts? We know that President George W. Bush and the House of Representatives want $1,600 billion of tax cuts over 10 years,...
Tax Complexity and the Working Poor
[National Public Radio (NPR)]Urban Institute Senior Fellow and former Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis, Len Burman, expounds upon the earned income tax credit (EITC) as he recounts his experiences with the confusing EITC while helping a single mother with her taxes....
Two Issues Not on the Current Tax Radar Screen
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle mentions two items that seem to be just below the radar screen of most of those following the tax cut debate: the adjustment of taxation of social security benefits and increases in child credits.
Opportunities in the Tax Bill
Treasury's New Distribution Presentation
The Department of the Treasury recently released a distribution table, which shows how income tax liabilities would change under President Bush's tax plan. This release, a positive step, represents the Administration's acknowledgment that the distribution of tax burdens is important in assessing...