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Tax Policy Center

Research & Commentary

Research report
Individual Taxes

Social Security & Medicare Lifetime Benefits and Taxes: 2022

Lifetime Social Security and Medicare taxes are scheduled to be significantly lower than lifetime Social Security and Medicare benefits for most workers in future decades, based on the latest data. This report compares the benefits and taxes paid by beneficiaries at the age of 65 from 1960 to...

February 14, 2023
C. Eugene SteuerleKaren E. Smith
Brief
Individual Taxes

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...

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

A Methodology for Integrated Distributional Analysis of Taxes and Transfers

Distributional analyses play a prominent role in policy discussions. Both tax and transfer policy have important distributional consequences, but traditionally they have been examined separately. This report describes a new methodology for integrated distributional analysis that imports results...

September 29, 2017
Gordon B. MerminFrank SammartinoMatthew BuettgensMelissa M. FavreaultElaine Maag
Research report
Individual Taxes

Social Security and Medicare Lifetime Benefits and Taxes

How big is your retirement package? Benefits from government retirement programs—Social Security and Medicare—vary over time, but the trend has been toward higher lifetime benefits for each successive cohort. Expansion derives mainly from increases in real annual benefits, more years of benefits...

September 16, 2015
C. Eugene SteuerleCaleb Quakenbush
Testimony
Individual Taxes

Myth and Reality of the Safety Net: The 1983 Social Security Reforms

In 1983 the Social Security Trust Fund was rapidly emptying. President Reagan appointed a bipartisan commission headed by Alan Greenspan to recommend solutions. The commission could not agree. Republicans adamantly opposed tax increases and Democrats opposed any slowdown in the growth of...

September 30, 2014
Rudolph G. Penner
Journal Article
Individual Taxes

The Effects of the Taxation of Social Security Benefits on Older Workers' Income and Claiming Decisions

Social Security benefits are taxed under a complex regime that raises marginal effective tax rates by up to 85 percent, which could discourage the labor supply of older workers and affect the decision to claim benefits. Using a nonparametric graphical methodology, this paper investigates whether...

June 30, 2014
Leonard E. BurmanNorma B CoeKevin PierceLiu Tian
Research report
Individual Taxes

Adding Employer Contributions to Health Insurance to Social Security's Earnings and Tax Base

Including employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) in taxable compensation would increase income and payroll tax receipts, but would also increase Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits by adding ESI to the OASDI earnings base. The increased present value of OASDI...

May 1, 2014
Karen E. SmithEric Toder
Testimony
Individual Taxes

Reforming Social Security Benefits

Reform of the Social Security benefit structure should proceed on the basis of principles and goals related to adequacy, protections in old age, encouragement of work to protect the tax base on which programs like this depend, and equal justice under the law for those equally situated. Many...

May 23, 2013
C. Eugene Steuerle
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