This year, Congress will consider what may be the biggest tax bill in decades. This is one of a series of briefs the Tax Policy Center has prepared to help people follow the debate. Each focuses on a key tax policy issue that Congress and the Trump administration may address. This brief...
The election of Donald Trump as president and Republican majorities in Congress have Washington primed for major legislative reforms. But it’s important to keep in mind that what the new government in the nation’s capital does will reverberate in all 50 statehouses. Knowing changes are coming,...
This paper applies the Schumpeterian view of entrepreneurship to estimate the tax rate on entrepreneurial income under alternative assumptions about the pattern of returns from innovations, the tax rules applied to different types of income (wages, interest, capital gains, dividends, corporate...
This essay is the tenth in a twelve-essay colloquium on the effect of low interest rates on the economy. To read other essays in the series, click here. The original version of this paper was...
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...
Bad framing of fiscal policy contributes to a poor allocation of money collected and spent. Almost all real growth in government goes automatically to health, retirement and tax subsidies, while spending on children, the work force, and infrastructure are scheduled for decline as a share of...
Long-term budget projections do not have to be right to be useful. Even when they are wrong, forecasts give valuable information about the long-term direction of key sectors of the budget, economy, and population. A variety of models now shows important demographic shifts—such as the aging of...
We usually think of lame ducks as politicians who have lost influence to their successors, but the next president could enter office with his or her influence already lost to his or her predecessors. The growing revenues that accompany economic growth traditionally provide a way for government...
US fiscal policy has long been unsustainable, driven largely by automatically growing entitlement spending and insufficient revenues. Often overlooked is the extent to which this preordained fiscal policy limits policymakers’ discretion to act on new priorities each year. This study lays out...
IRS - What It Does and How to Reform It
This year, Congress will consider what may be the biggest tax bill in decades. This is one of a series of briefs the Tax Policy Center has prepared to help people follow the debate. Each focuses on a key tax policy issue that Congress and the Trump administration may address. This brief...
State Budgets in the Trump Era
The election of Donald Trump as president and Republican majorities in Congress have Washington primed for major legislative reforms. But it’s important to keep in mind that what the new government in the nation’s capital does will reverberate in all 50 statehouses. Knowing changes are coming,...
Taxing Entrepreneurial Income
This paper applies the Schumpeterian view of entrepreneurship to estimate the tax rate on entrepreneurial income under alternative assumptions about the pattern of returns from innovations, the tax rules applied to different types of income (wages, interest, capital gains, dividends, corporate...
Interest Rates and the Federal Budget Outlook
This essay is the tenth in a twelve-essay colloquium on the effect of low interest rates on the economy. To read other essays in the series, click here. The original version of this paper was...
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...
How Budget Offices Should Reframe Our Long-Term Budget Problems
Bad framing of fiscal policy contributes to a poor allocation of money collected and spent. Almost all real growth in government goes automatically to health, retirement and tax subsidies, while spending on children, the work force, and infrastructure are scheduled for decline as a share of...
The Reliability of Long-Term Budget Projections
Long-term budget projections do not have to be right to be useful. Even when they are wrong, forecasts give valuable information about the long-term direction of key sectors of the budget, economy, and population. A variety of models now shows important demographic shifts—such as the aging of...
A Lame Duck President in 2017?
We usually think of lame ducks as politicians who have lost influence to their successors, but the next president could enter office with his or her influence already lost to his or her predecessors. The growing revenues that accompany economic growth traditionally provide a way for government...
Options to Restore More Discretion to the Federal Budget
US fiscal policy has long been unsustainable, driven largely by automatically growing entitlement spending and insufficient revenues. Often overlooked is the extent to which this preordained fiscal policy limits policymakers’ discretion to act on new priorities each year. This study lays out...
Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds and the Financing of Professional Sports Stadiums
This report takes an investigative look at federal revenue spent on professional sports stadiums. Visit the Brookings Institution's website to try...