Postsecondary education can be a critical step on the path toward economic independence, but many low-income students who are independent for tax purposes face tremendous financial difficulties when trying to complete postsecondary school. Extending the Economic Security Project’s cost-of-living...
A taxpayer’s decision to itemize deductions or to claim the standard deduction on their income tax return is often framed as a simple calculation: Claim the greater of the two so as to minimize tax liability. But in states that require taxpayers to use the same status on their state income tax...
Although theory suggests that people who live longer work longer, life expectancy and labor force participation at older ages have not always moved in the same direction. This paper uses a spatial approach based on census-tract-level data from the U.S. Small-Area Life...
This report presents updated figures in 2020 dollars for the lifetime benefits earned and the lifetime taxes paid by hypothetical workers participating in Social Security and Medicare. For a single male earning average wages every year and retiring in 2020 at age 65, lifetime Social Security and...
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...
Fiscal policy was of primary importance to the white supremacist governments that came to power on a wave of electoral fraud, intimidation, and violence at the end of the Reconstruction. By the end of the 19th Century, the fiscal system, like the larger legal framework of the Jim Crow South, had...
This paper examines the fiscal system put in place in the former Confederacy in the decades after Reconstruction. Overturning Reconstruction-era policies that taxed wealth and invested in public services, the white supremacist governments that came to power in the later 19th Century slashed...
Steven M Rosenthal, senior fellow, testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Oversight Subcommittee at a hearing on “Tax Fairness.” In his testimony, he examines President’s Trump’s reported taxes as a case study. Mr. Rosenthal assesses tax fairness through...
To raise revenue in a progressive, efficient, and administrable manner, this chapter proposes a new national consumption tax: a broad-based credit-invoice value-added tax (VAT). Th e proposal comes with several qualifications: the VAT should complement, not substitute for, new direct taxes on...
State government tax revenues showed year-over-year growth at 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020. However, preliminary data indicate double-digit declines in state government tax revenues in the second quarter of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and...
Extending the Earned Income Tax Credit to Students: A Comparison of Aid Policies
Postsecondary education can be a critical step on the path toward economic independence, but many low-income students who are independent for tax purposes face tremendous financial difficulties when trying to complete postsecondary school. Extending the Economic Security Project’s cost-of-living...
Itemizing on State and Federal Income Tax Returns: It's (Now More) Complicated
A taxpayer’s decision to itemize deductions or to claim the standard deduction on their income tax return is often framed as a simple calculation: Claim the greater of the two so as to minimize tax liability. But in states that require taxpayers to use the same status on their state income tax...
Do People Work Longer When They Live Longer?
Although theory suggests that people who live longer work longer, life expectancy and labor force participation at older ages have not always moved in the same direction. This paper uses a spatial approach based on census-tract-level data from the U.S. Small-Area Life...
Social Security & Medicare Lifetime Benefits & Taxes: 2020
This report presents updated figures in 2020 dollars for the lifetime benefits earned and the lifetime taxes paid by hypothetical workers participating in Social Security and Medicare. For a single male earning average wages every year and retiring in 2020 at age 65, lifetime Social Security and...
A Synthetic Supplemental Public-Use File of Low-Income Information Return Data: Methodology, Utility, and Privacy Implications
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...
The Long Shadow of White Supremacist Fiscal Policy
Fiscal policy was of primary importance to the white supremacist governments that came to power on a wave of electoral fraud, intimidation, and violence at the end of the Reconstruction. By the end of the 19th Century, the fiscal system, like the larger legal framework of the Jim Crow South, had...
The Long Shadow of White Supremacist Fiscal Policy
This paper examines the fiscal system put in place in the former Confederacy in the decades after Reconstruction. Overturning Reconstruction-era policies that taxed wealth and invested in public services, the white supremacist governments that came to power in the later 19th Century slashed...
Tax Fairness: President Donald Trump, a Case Study
Steven M Rosenthal, senior fellow, testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Oversight Subcommittee at a hearing on “Tax Fairness.” In his testimony, he examines President’s Trump’s reported taxes as a case study. Mr. Rosenthal assesses tax fairness through...
Raising Revenue with a Progressive Value-Added Tax
To raise revenue in a progressive, efficient, and administrable manner, this chapter proposes a new national consumption tax: a broad-based credit-invoice value-added tax (VAT). Th e proposal comes with several qualifications: the VAT should complement, not substitute for, new direct taxes on...
State Tax and Economic Review, 2020 Quarter 1
State government tax revenues showed year-over-year growth at 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020. However, preliminary data indicate double-digit declines in state government tax revenues in the second quarter of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and...