The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) instituted the most substantial changes in taxation in decades and was designed to boost the economy via supply-side incentives. This paper reviews these changes and examines the impacts on economic aggregates through 2019. The Act clearly reduced revenue...
Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow in the Tax Policy Center, testified before the Select Revenue Measures and Oversight subcommittees of House Ways and Means at a hearing on the tax gap and improving tax administration. The testimony focused on four key areas: the impact of reductions in the IRS’s...
Over the period between 2013 and 2029, the sum of the estimated budgetary costs of all tax expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product will range from approximately 8.5 percent in fiscal year 2017 to 6 percent in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA)...
Because of the small share of the population currently eligible for itemized tax deductions for charitable giving, many charities have argued that a more universal charitable deduction or tax credit should exist. A more universal subsidy could (but would not necessarily) increase significantly...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing recession, as well as racial injustices and protest responses throughout 2020, have highlighted that public policies can have very different impacts on populations by race or ethnicity. Tax policies, in particular, are commonly perceived as “race neutral,”...
In this brief, we examine how Social Security proposals could eliminate poverty and relative poverty (defined as having low income relative to average wages in the economy) for older adults and people who receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. We add a basic minimum benefit to...
Pervading the history and tax laws applying to foundations is a persistent suspicion of the wealthy and of concentrated power, while the battles between foundations and Congress largely center on who has control over the uses of wealth. Foundation laws, and by extension, laws proposed or enacted...
Workers without children living at home, called “childless” for tax purposes, are eligible for relatively small benefits from the earned income tax credit (EITC). We analyze the effect of increasing the EITC for this group and extending benefits to workers ages 19 and older, rather than...
How much has the COVID-19 pandemic changed America’s fiscal future and affected President-elect Biden’s opportunity to set a new course for fiscal policy? Largely as a consequence of the pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in September projected a deficit of more than $3 trillion for...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Searching for Supply-side Effects
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) instituted the most substantial changes in taxation in decades and was designed to boost the economy via supply-side incentives. This paper reviews these changes and examines the impacts on economic aggregates through 2019. The Act clearly reduced revenue...
The Effect of Tax Enforcement on Revenues
Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow in the Tax Policy Center, testified before the Select Revenue Measures and Oversight subcommittees of House Ways and Means at a hearing on the tax gap and improving tax administration. The testimony focused on four key areas: the impact of reductions in the IRS’s...
Has $3.5 Trillion of Pandemic Relief Enacted in 2020 Altered the Nation’s Long-Term Budgetary Path?
The first CBO report of the Biden presidency laid out the fiscal status of the federal government at the start of his administration. Despite the multi-trillion-dollar response to the pandemic and related increases in national debt, the long-term direction of the federal budget has changed...
Trends in Tax Expenditures: An Update
Over the period between 2013 and 2029, the sum of the estimated budgetary costs of all tax expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product will range from approximately 8.5 percent in fiscal year 2017 to 6 percent in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA)...
Designing an Effective and More Universal Charitable Deduction
Because of the small share of the population currently eligible for itemized tax deductions for charitable giving, many charities have argued that a more universal charitable deduction or tax credit should exist. A more universal subsidy could (but would not necessarily) increase significantly...
State and Local Government Revenues and Racial Disparities
The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing recession, as well as racial injustices and protest responses throughout 2020, have highlighted that public policies can have very different impacts on populations by race or ethnicity. Tax policies, in particular, are commonly perceived as “race neutral,”...
First Things First: How Social Security Reform Can Eliminate Elderly Poverty
In this brief, we examine how Social Security proposals could eliminate poverty and relative poverty (defined as having low income relative to average wages in the economy) for older adults and people who receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. We add a basic minimum benefit to...
Taxes and Foundations: A 50th Anniversary Overview
Pervading the history and tax laws applying to foundations is a persistent suspicion of the wealthy and of concentrated power, while the battles between foundations and Congress largely center on who has control over the uses of wealth. Foundation laws, and by extension, laws proposed or enacted...
Options to Increase the EITC for Workers Without Children at Home
Workers without children living at home, called “childless” for tax purposes, are eligible for relatively small benefits from the earned income tax credit (EITC). We analyze the effect of increasing the EITC for this group and extending benefits to workers ages 19 and older, rather than...
The Pandemic and President-Elect Biden’s Opportunity to Chart a New Course
How much has the COVID-19 pandemic changed America’s fiscal future and affected President-elect Biden’s opportunity to set a new course for fiscal policy? Largely as a consequence of the pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in September projected a deficit of more than $3 trillion for...