Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Does Anyone Care About a Simple Tax Code?

One of the biggest selling points for tax reform is the claim that a new and improved revenue code would be easier for taxpayers to manage. Along with economic growth and fairness, simplicity has been a watchword for reform for decades. But a striking new survey by the Associated Press-GfK has me
April 10, 2014Howard Gleckman
: Daily Deduction

A New Tax Tool, Committees, Bonds and Climbs

Getting to know your 1040: TPC demystifies your tax forms. We dutifully enter numbers on our tax returns every year (or pay somebody do it for us). But what do each of those lines really mean? How do they contribute to the nation’s revenues? How many people report various sources of income? To find
April 10, 2014Renu Zaretsky
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

What’s Behind That 1040? Check Out TPC’s Interactive Tax Forms

Federal income taxes are complicated. That’s why roughly 90 percent of us either hire someone to prepare our tax returns or use computer software to do the job on our own. Only a tenth of us actually sit down and fill out the forms by hand. But it’s still important to understand what goes onto the
April 9, 2014Roberton C. Williams
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Seven Tax Issues Facing Small Business

Today I had the chance to testify before the House Small Business Committee on the many tax issues facing small business. Here are my opening remarks. You can find my full testimony here . America’s tax system is needlessly complex, economically harmful, and often unfair. Despite recent revenue
April 9, 2014Donald Marron
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Tax Expenditures for Asset-Building: Costly, Regressive, and Ineffective

Most federal subsidies aimed at helping households accumulate financial and tangible assets are delivered through tax expenditures—spending through the tax code. In 2013, these deductions, deferrals, and credits aimed at encouraging such asset building totaled over $350 billion, most devoted to
April 9, 2014Benjamin H. Harris
: Daily Deduction

Taxing Times on the Hill and on Returns

Do small businesses have a tax problem? The House Small Business Committee holds a hearing this afternoon on the biggest tax problems faced by small firms. TPC's Donald Marron and American University's David Kautter will testify. They'll be joined by Tim Reynolds of the National Small Business
April 9, 2014Renu Zaretsky
Business Taxes: Testimony

Tax Issues Facing Small Business

Testimony before the Small Business Committee, United States House of Representatives
In testimony before the House Small Business Committee, Donald Marron examines how tax policy affects small business. Complying with the tax code places a disproportionate burden on small businesses. On the other hand, small businesses are more likely to underpay their taxes, sometimes
April 8, 2014Donald Marron
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

If You Have High Income, Your Taxes Are Going Up

As the April 15 deadline for filing 2013 income taxes nears, most of us are finding that Uncle Sam will take about the same share of our income as last year. But the story is very different for people at the top of the income ladder. Their taxes are going up, in many cases by a lot. Last year, the
April 8, 2014Roberton C. Williams
: Daily Deduction

Ethics and Fairness, Growth and the Environment, Retirement and Tax Shelters

Just in time for Tax Day—are you being served? The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing today on how best to protect taxpayers from incompetent and unethical return preparers. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson will appear. The Joint Committee on Taxation’s
April 8, 2014Renu Zaretsky
Individual Taxes: Research report

Educational Attainment and Earnings Inequality among US-Born Men

A Lifetime Perspective
This report tracks the lifetime earnings of men born in the U.S. between 1940 and 1974, focusing on how earnings differences by educational attainment, age, and year of birth have evolved. Both annual and lifetime earnings inequality increased dramatically for men born in the mid-1950s onward. That
April 7, 2014Josh Mitchell
: Daily Deduction

Out of Committee, Across the Globe, and Due West

Extenders move out of Committee. The Senate Finance Committee sent to the full Senate a measure to temporarily renew over 50 tax breaks that lapsed at the end of 2013. Chairman Ron Wyden tried to eliminate about a dozen, but the committee put nearly all of them back. A House Ways & Means
April 7, 2014Renu Zaretsky
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Two Ways to Fix the Corporate Income Tax: Internationalize it or Kill It

In an important new paper , Eric Toder of the Tax Policy Center and Alan Viard of the American Enterprise Institute say that corporate tax reforms now being debated in Congress fall far short of solving the widespread problems with the levy. Rather than merely lowering rates and tinkering with tax
April 4, 2014Howard Gleckman
: Daily Deduction

Settlement, Disappointment, and Equality

One last reminder: You can tune in to a live webcast this morning at 9:00 am for “Major Surgery Needed: A call for structural reform of the US corporate income tax.” The event is cosponsored by the American Enterprise Institute and the Tax Policy Center. Extending the Extender Talks . The Senate
April 4, 2014Renu Zaretsky
Business Taxes: Research report

Major Surgery Needed: A Call for Structural Reform of the US Corporate Income Tax

A corporate income tax can play a useful role by preventing shareholders from deferring tax on retained corporate profits. The current U.S. corporate income tax is deeply flawed, however, because it relies on definitions of corporate residence and income sourcing that corporations can easily
April 3, 2014Eric ToderAlan Viard
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Why Most Tax Extenders Should Not Be Permanent

What to do about the tax extenders—or, as my colleague Donald Marron calls them, the “tax expirers” ? Restoring the current crop (most of which expired on December 31) for 10 years would add about $900 billion to the deficit. House Ways & Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-MI) and Senate
April 3, 2014C. Eugene Steuerle
: Daily Deduction

Expirations, Compliance and Corporations

EXPIRE Act mark-up today, more on extenders next week. The Senate Finance Committee will begin its mark-up of chair Ron Wyden’s plan for restoring dozens of tax breaks that expired last December. He proposed killing only a handful and supporters are already gearing up to save them. On April 8,
April 3, 2014Renu Zaretsky
: Daily Deduction

Must Everything Old Be New Again?

Wyden’s extenders bill is set for a vote tomorrow. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden and senior Republican Orrin Hatch introduced the EXPIRE Act (“Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency Act”) yesterday. The committee will consider it on Thursday. The measure would kill a few
April 2, 2014Renu Zaretsky
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

House Republicans Punt on Tax Reform

The House Republican budget, released today by Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI), kicks the tax reform can down the road yet again. Not only does it fail to enhance chances for a tax code rewrite, it almost certainly sets the effort back. This budget isn’t so much an actual fiscal plan (the
April 1, 2014Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

An EPA-Sanctioned State-Based Carbon Tax Could Reduce Emissions and Improve State Finances

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing a proposed rule due out in June that could allow states to use carbon excise taxes or fees to limit the one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that come from power plants. The tax approach, one of several options EPA could offer
April 1, 2014Adele C. Morris
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Thank You, Dave Camp

House Ways & Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-MI), who said yesterday that he’ll retire from Congress at the end of the year, will leave behind an enormously important achievement. At a time when too many of his fellow lawmakers substitute easy partisan rhetoric for hard work, Camp wrote a
April 1, 2014Howard Gleckman
: Daily Deduction

On Retirement, Values, Patience, and Strategy

House Ways & Means Chair Dave Camp will retire. The Congressman from Michigan will not seek reelection , he announced yesterday. House Republican rules barred him from remaining as chair of the tax-writing panel. The last nine months of his tenure will reflect his values: “I will redouble my
April 1, 2014Renu Zaretsky
State and Local Issues: Research report

A Comparison of State Minimum Wages

This Tax Fact examines minimum wages across states. The current federal minimum wage, which applies to almost all employees, is $7.25 per hour unchanged since 2010. The District of Columbia and 21 states set minimum wages higher than the federal rate.
April 1, 2014Norton FrancisYuri Shadunsky
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: Panel

The Politics of Tax Reform: How Do We Get There from Here?

Everyone agrees that the tax code is a mess. So why is tax reform so hard? What could lawmakers do to build broad public support for an idea that would inevitably create winners and losers? The Tax Policy Center is hosting three of the nation’s leading scholars on the politics of tax reform to
March 31, 2014
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Should Tax Reform Be Sold on Values Instead of Economics?

Maybe the best way for tax reformers to get political traction is to focus on values, not economics. That, at least, was one take-away from three political scientists who spoke at a Tax Policy Center panel today. Until now, backers of reform have focused primarily on economic arguments: A reformed
March 31, 2014Howard Gleckman
: Daily Deduction

Tax Reform, Tax Expenditures, and Kevin Spacey

Tune in to TPC’s Tax Reform event today. A panel explores “The Politics of Tax Reform” today at noon at the Urban Institute. If you can’t join Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute, Chris Faricy of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, William Galston, of the Brookings Institution
March 31, 2014Renu Zaretsky