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Tax Policy Center

Research & Commentary

Brief
Individual Taxes

Lessons Learned from Expanded Child Tax Credit Outreach to Immigrant Communities in Boston

The Child Tax Credit (CTC), expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, dramatically reduced child poverty across the United States in 2021, but it did not reach all eligible families equally. Immigrant families continued to face barriers in learning about and claiming their tax...

October 7, 2022
Luisa Godinez-PuigAravind BoddupalliLivia Mucciolo
Brief
Individual Taxes

Machine Learning and Tax Enforcement

Each year, the Internal Revenue Services receives over 3 billion information returns, such as W-2s and 1099-INTs, from employers, banks, and other entities. The IRS also collects some data about taxpayers from other government agencies and the private sector. But given budget cuts and data...

June 22, 2022
Janet HoltzblattAlex Engler
Brief

The Tax Gap’s Many Shades of Gray (Brief)

The “tax gap”—the difference between the amount of taxes owed and the amount of tax actually paid—includes substantial gray areas where the law is ambiguous and the IRS’s determination of taxes owed is debatable. Understanding the tax gap’s shades of gray can inform discussions of tax law and...

February 22, 2022
Daniel HemelJanet HoltzblattSteven M. Rosenthal
Brief
Individual Taxes

Who Has Received Advance Child Tax Credit Payments, and How Were the Payments Used?

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) temporarily increased the child tax credit (CTC), made the credit fully refundable, and authorized the IRS to issue up to half the credit as an advance monthly payment beginning in July 2021. The IRS reports that nearly 61 million children received the...

November 4, 2021
Michael KarpmanElaine MaagGenevieve M. KenneyDouglas A. Wissoker
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
Journal Article
Individual Taxes

The Inside Agitator

This article reviews the 18-year tenure of the just-retired National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson, and her successes and challenges in building the post into a key role in tax administration through casework, systemic advocacy, and detailed reports to Congress.

The critical appreciation...

September 19, 2019
Robert A. Weinberger
Brief
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

The Filer Voter Experiment: How Effective is Voter Registration at Tax Time?

The Filer Voter experiment, conducted in 2018, assessed the effectiveness of conducting voter registration drives at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites for lower-income households in Cleveland and Dallas. The Filer Voter program doubled the likelihood of unregistered voters registering...

July 15, 2019
Vanessa Williamson
Research report
Individual Taxes

Most People Receive Refunds at Tax Time

Taxpayers routinely have too much income tax withheld. Of the 126 million tax returns the IRS processed through April 17, 2015, almost three-quarters resulted in a refund. The average refund was $2,711 with higher average refunds going to the earliest filers.

June 9, 2015
Elaine MaagElena Ramirez
Individual Taxes

New Resources for Microdata-Based Tax Analysis

The Statistics of Income (SOI) Division of IRS prepares a publicly available file, the Public Use File, from its annual sample of income tax returns. The PUF is a critical data source for tax policy analysis. To insure taxpayer confidentiality, SOI applies disclosure avoidance procedures to the...

November 15, 2014
Victoria L. BryantJohn L. CzajkaJames R. NunnsGeorgia Ivsin
Research report
Individual Taxes

Costly Error in Payroll Tax Computation for the Self-Employed

Errors in the formulas for computing payroll tax for the self-employed result in their paying less payroll taxes than workers with the same earnings. All self-employed workers benefit from these errors, but those with high earnings benefit disproportionately. A provision in Ways and Means...

July 1, 2014
James R. Nunns

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