Small businesses occupy an iconic place in American public policy debates. This paper discusses interactions between the federal tax code, small business, and the economy. We summarize the characteristics of small businesses, identify the tax provisions that most affect small businesses, and review
This paper provides estimates of the total cost of and distributional effects of nonbusiness tax expenditures claimed on individual tax returns after enactment of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, taking account of interactions among provisions. Nonbusiness tax expenditures will reduce tax liability
This exercise is a structured analysis to understand the implications that repealing tax expenditures would have for the overall federal tax system. The baseline tax law for the calculations in this exercise is the law in effect before enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (essentially the Tax
This paper presents estimates of the macroeconomic effects, and resulting dynamic impact on revenues, of the House GOP tax plan announced in June 2016. The estimates were produced in two ways. One set of estimates uses a combination of TPC’s Keynesian model (to project short-run effects on output
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 compares
Total state tax revenue collections increased 24.1 percent in nominal terms and 17.2 percent in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2021 relative to a year earlier. Although state revenue collections have grown rapidly in the most recent months and reported revenue growth is widespread across
This paper examines the incidence of the federal income tax exemption of interest on state and local bonds, applying a fixed-savings, simplified general equilibrium approach to estimate incidence effects on both the sources and uses of income. In contrast to traditional empirical work that
Standard analysis of the corporate income tax assumes shareholders bear the burden of taxes on excess returns. But evidence shows that firms share rents with workers, especially high-income workers, which implies that these workers bear some of the burden as well. Using the Tax Policy Center
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s tax proposal would (1) repeal the corporate income tax, payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and estate and gift taxes; (2) collapse the seven individual income tax rates to a single 10 percent rate, increase the standard deduction, and eliminate most
Tracy Gordon, senior fellow, testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on the Budget for a hearing on “Why Federal Investments Matter: Stability from Congress to State Capitals.” In her testimony she notes that while states and localities are key economic players and service
Increased demand for better use of evidence in policymaking has sparked bipartisan support for better evaluation of federal spending programs. Tax expenditures, spending-like subsidies embedded in the tax code, cost taxpayers roughly as much as domestic discretionary programs, yet receive little-to
This paper analyzes presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s tax proposal. It would reduce individual and business marginal tax rates, curtail tax expenditures, and convert the corporate income tax into a cash-flow consumption tax. The proposal would cut taxes at all income levels, reducing federal
The United States has a worldwide system that taxes the dividends its resident multinational corporations receive from their foreign affiliates, while most other countries have territorial systems that exempt these dividends. This report examines the experience of four countries – two with long-
This table shows the value of statutory tax rates, brackets, the standard deduction, personal exemptions and other tax law parameters under current law for 2010...
This paper gives an overview of the methodology behind the short- and long-run dynamic scoring of Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s tax plan proposals. Following the practice of official government estimators, we use a Keynesian model to estimate the short-term effects of policy changes on
State government tax revenues fluctuated wildly throughout state fiscal year 2019, which ended on June 30th in 46 states. The fluctuations were largely related to income tax receipts and caused by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Overall, state tax revenues showed robust growth in the second quarter of
State government tax revenues rebounded in the first quarter of 2019 after declines in the fourth quarter of 2018. However, year-over-year growth was substantially weaker in the first quarter of 2019 than in the final quarter of 2017 and the first three quarters of 2018. Most of the recent weakness
A great deal of government spending is hidden in the federal tax code in the form of deductions, credits, and other preferences preferences that seem like they let taxpayers keep their own money, but are actually spending in disguise.
Urban Institute president, Robert Reischauer, testifies before Congress on some of the challenges facing the Congress as it makes its decisions about the fiscal 2003 budget.
State government tax revenues showed year-over-year growth at 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020. However, preliminary data indicate double-digit declines in state government tax revenues in the second quarter of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and government responses. States’ economic
Debate over tax policy is always intense, as it should be since much of the government's agenda is defined within the tax system. When it comes to tax cuts, this debate usually centers on size of government and progressivity of the tax system.
The testimony discusses current statistics on tax evasion, the argument for trying to stem it, and why IRS efforts so far have been disappointing. It then focuses on specific issues related to the earned income tax credit (EITC). The testimony concludes that, while deterring system-wide tax evasion