Kim Rueben, Sol Price Fellow at the Urban Institute, and Richard Auxier, Senior Policy Associate at the Urban Institute, testified before the Council of the District of Columbia’s Committee on Business and Economic Development on March 14, 2022. The hearing included a discussion on the “Pension...
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...
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...
Federal tax law provides several tax benefits for homeowners. This chartbook focuses on the home mortgage interest deduction. We provide updated estimates of the distributional effects of the home mortgage interest deduction, show how those estimates could change if people pay down their home...
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...
This chartbook explores the implications of current-law income tax incentives for charitable donations along with several alternatives for tax deductions that are more universally available.
In this brief we consider the largest nonbusiness tax expenditures in the individual income tax. We provide a description of these provisions, estimates of their cost and the distribution of their tax benefits across income groups, and briefly summarize their effects. We consider tax...
Conventional estimates that do not fully account for this rebalancing overstate the increase in revenues associated with eliminating the MID and will also overstate the progressivity of eliminating the MID, because households with higher levels of non-residential assets might respond by selling...
This exercise is a structured analysis to understand the implications that repealing tax expenditures would have for the overall federal tax system. The baseline tax law for the calculations in this exercise is the law in effect before enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (essentially the Tax...
This report considers three options for restructuring the home mortgage interest deduction – replacing the deduction with a 15 percent non-refundable interest credit, reducing the ceiling on debt eligible for an interest subsidy to $500,000, and combining the substitution of the credit for the...
Understanding The 2014 DC Tax Revision Commission’s Recommendation to Eliminate Certain Individual Income Tax Expenditures
Kim Rueben, Sol Price Fellow at the Urban Institute, and Richard Auxier, Senior Policy Associate at the Urban Institute, testified before the Council of the District of Columbia’s Committee on Business and Economic Development on March 14, 2022. The hearing included a discussion on the “Pension...
Accounting for The Benefit of Retirement Saving Incentives in Distribution Tables
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...
Expanding Modeling Capacity on Tax Expenditures for Homeownership
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...
Effects of Tax Incentives on Homeownership
Federal tax law provides several tax benefits for homeowners. This chartbook focuses on the home mortgage interest deduction. We provide updated estimates of the distributional effects of the home mortgage interest deduction, show how those estimates could change if people pay down their home...
Alternatives to the TCJA Limit on the State and Local Tax Deduction
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...
Tax Incentives for Charitable Contributions
This chartbook explores the implications of current-law income tax incentives for charitable donations along with several alternatives for tax deductions that are more universally available.
What are the Largest Nonbusiness Tax Expenditures?
In this brief we consider the largest nonbusiness tax expenditures in the individual income tax. We provide a description of these provisions, estimates of their cost and the distribution of their tax benefits across income groups, and briefly summarize their effects. We consider tax...
The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Revenue and Distributional Effects
Conventional estimates that do not fully account for this rebalancing overstate the increase in revenues associated with eliminating the MID and will also overstate the progressivity of eliminating the MID, because households with higher levels of non-residential assets might respond by selling...
The Tax Reform Tradeoff: Eliminating Tax Expenditures, Reducing Rates Final Report
This exercise is a structured analysis to understand the implications that repealing tax expenditures would have for the overall federal tax system. The baseline tax law for the calculations in this exercise is the law in effect before enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (essentially the Tax...
Effects of Reforms of the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction by Income Group and by State
This report considers three options for restructuring the home mortgage interest deduction – replacing the deduction with a 15 percent non-refundable interest credit, reducing the ceiling on debt eligible for an interest subsidy to $500,000, and combining the substitution of the credit for the...