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Tax Policy Center

Research & Commentary

Brief
Federal Budget and Economy

Weathering the Economic Storm of Covid-19

Both the US and the UK experienced dramatic slowdowns in economic activity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each enacted large-scale responses targeted at workers, and in addition, the US extended direct cash aid broadly through economic impact payments (EIPs) and then to most parents with...

January 31, 2023
Mathieu DespardChristoph GörtzElaine MaagDanny McGowan
Research report
Individual Taxes

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...

August 7, 2020
Eric ToderSurachai Khitatrakun
Research report
Individual Taxes

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...

June 26, 2020
Janet HoltzblattJamie McGuire
Brief
Individual Taxes

Rethinking Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Benefits

Unemployment Insurance (UI) serves a core purpose that is intuitive for both economists and noneconomists: it provides insurance against the risk of job loss. Because employment is the only or primary source of income for most families, job loss often delivers a financial blow that would be...

October 28, 2019
Ryan NunnDavid Ratner
Research report
Federal Budget and Economy

Rethinking Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Benefits

This paper addresses economic issues related to the unemployment insurance (UI) system, focusing on the worker- and employer-facing aspects of UI policy—i.e., the ways that benefits are provided to workers and that employers are taxed to fund those benefits. We outline principles for optimal...

October 27, 2019
Ryan NunnDavid Ratner
Brief
Business Taxes

What are the Largest Business Tax Expenditures?

In this brief, we list the 10 major business tax expenditures with the largest revenue losses, as defined by the Office of Tax Analysis (OTA) of the US Treasury Department and the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). We provide a brief description of each provision and briefly...

July 17, 2019
Frank SammartinoEric Toder
Research report
Federal Budget and Economy

A U.S. Fiscal Crisis?

Recent tax cuts and the relaxation of spending caps on much of discretionary spending have added massively to the federal debt. Neither political party is showing much interest in controlling deficits and unless there are large changes in fiscal policies we are firmly on a road to a fiscal...

October 17, 2018
Rudolph G. Penner
Brief
Federal Budget and Economy

Who Benefits from Expanding the EITC or CTC?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) missed an opportunity to help low-income childless workers, very low-income families with children, and families with young children – all groups where investments could be particularly productive. The child tax credit (CTC) and earned income tax credit (EITC)...

July 30, 2018
Elaine Maag
Testimony
Individual Taxes

Reflections on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Mark Mazur, Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, testified before the Joint Economic Committee during a hearing entitled “Unleashing America’s Economic Potential.” In his testimony, Mazur presented a review of the principles of desirable tax policy, clear and less clear findings...

April 11, 2018
Mark J. Mazur
Brief
Federal Budget and Economy

Reconsidering Americans' Overestimates of Government Waste and Foreign Aid

Widespread and profound public misinformation about government presents a serious challenge to democratic accountability. This paper demonstrates that two of the most common examples of public misperception may be systematically overestimated; public misperceptions of “foreign aid” spending and...

March 30, 2018
Vanessa Williamson

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