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...
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...
This report describes the Tax Policy Center’s (TPC’s) improved methodology for analyzing the taxation of pass-through income (income generated through business activities that is taxed at the individual level). Under current law, certain types of pass-through income are taxed at different rates...
This chartbook explores the implications of the tax-advantaged treatment of pass-through income enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). Section 199A of the TCJA allows a deduction from taxable income of 20 percent of certain pass-through income. We look specifically at the...
From 2010 through 2019, funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) dropped by 24 percent, after adjustment for inflation. As a consequence, the percentage of taxpayers who were audited fell by nearly half. In this paper, we use confidential IRS data to compare the returns on investments (ROI...
State tax revenues showed continued growth in the first half of fiscal year 2020. State government tax revenues from major sources showed solid year-over-year growth at 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019. Preliminary data show strong growth in January and February before declines in March...
The global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak will dramatically affect state tax revenues over the next months and possibly years. This brief summarizes how state revenue forecasters viewed their state economies before the COVID-19 pandemic, as documented in governors’ proposed...
In this brief, we estimate the revenue and distributional effects of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign tax proposals. We show the revenue and distributional implications of tax proposals excluding those related to his Medicare for All plan. We also report the revenue estimates (but not the...
In this report, we evaluate major federal tax expenditures. We distinguish between tax expenditures that are effectively spending programs and those that are departures from a comprehensive income tax but are not essentially spending substitutes. Most major tax expenditures have some policy...
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...
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...
Description of the Tax Policy Center’s Improved Methodology for Analysis of the Taxation of Pass-Through Income
This report describes the Tax Policy Center’s (TPC’s) improved methodology for analyzing the taxation of pass-through income (income generated through business activities that is taxed at the individual level). Under current law, certain types of pass-through income are taxed at different rates...
Tax Incentives for Pass-Through Income
This chartbook explores the implications of the tax-advantaged treatment of pass-through income enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). Section 199A of the TCJA allows a deduction from taxable income of 20 percent of certain pass-through income. We look specifically at the...
Effects of Recent Reductions in the Internal Revenue Service’s Appropriations on Returns on Investment
From 2010 through 2019, funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) dropped by 24 percent, after adjustment for inflation. As a consequence, the percentage of taxpayers who were audited fell by nearly half. In this paper, we use confidential IRS data to compare the returns on investments (ROI...
State Tax and Economic Review, 2019 Quarter 4
State tax revenues showed continued growth in the first half of fiscal year 2020. State government tax revenues from major sources showed solid year-over-year growth at 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019. Preliminary data show strong growth in January and February before declines in March...
State Revenue Forecasts Before COVID-19 and Directions Forward
The global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak will dramatically affect state tax revenues over the next months and possibly years. This brief summarizes how state revenue forecasters viewed their state economies before the COVID-19 pandemic, as documented in governors’ proposed...
An Analysis of Senator Sanders's Tax Proposals
In this brief, we estimate the revenue and distributional effects of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign tax proposals. We show the revenue and distributional implications of tax proposals excluding those related to his Medicare for All plan. We also report the revenue estimates (but not the...
Are Tax Expenditures Worth the Money?
In this report, we evaluate major federal tax expenditures. We distinguish between tax expenditures that are effectively spending programs and those that are departures from a comprehensive income tax but are not essentially spending substitutes. Most major tax expenditures have some policy...