Thanks to artificially low interest rates, the United States has been able to finance deficits exceeding $1 trillion every year from 2009 through 2012 at...
The inaugural edition of the state economic monitor reviews the health of various aspects of state economies, including employment, housing, state finances, and economic growth. This monitor documents key economic conditions through June 2013 in all 50 states, and also serves as a valuable
Max Baucus and Dave Camp, leaders of the Senate and House tax-writing committees, are on the road promoting tax simplification. One goal: cleaning out the...
No one quite knows what exactly Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) mean when they say they will...
A new analysis by the Government Accountability Office finds that in 2010 large U.S. corporations paid an average effective tax rate on their worldwide income...
The other day, President Obama proposed a modest and largely aspirational plan to respond to climate change. Unlike some of his past efforts, it did...
Federal taxpayers choose between itemizing deductions and claiming the standard deduction. Itemizers can claim deductions for state and local income and property taxes paid. (Through 2013, taxpayers may deduct state and local sales taxes paid in lieu of income taxes.) In 2011, 46.6 million
Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the chairman and senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, tried to jump-start the drive towards tax...
I’m celebrating today’s Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) with my friends and relatives whose marriages are today, finally, accorded equal...
Same-sex couples are cheering the Supreme Court’s striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), but the tax consequences are more of a mixed bag...
It is politically implausible to solve entirely America's budget problem on the spending side, Rudolph Penner states in "The International Economy" journal (spring 2013). Taxes will have to increase as well.
Do you think Congress really cares about the budget deficit anymore? Or that the age-old practice of buying lawmakers votes with local projects is really...
The following is the text of a debate that occurred between Rosenthal and Needham at the May meeting of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation in Washington regarding the proper tax treatment of private equity funds and their partners under current law. The introduction should be
When policy folks talk about America’s federal borrowing, their go-to measures are the public debt, currently $12 trillion, and its ratio to gross domestic product,...
Measuring the size of government is not simple. Standard measures omit important aspects of government action such as the many deductions, credits, and other tax preferences used to influence resource allocation. We argue that many tax preferences are effectively spending. Traditional measures of
Social Security Disability Insurance has often been forgotten in the debate over the broader Social Security program. But Congress is beginning to pay attention, perhaps...
The IRS is pleased to announce that it will co-host a one-day research conference in June with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC) again this year. Like last year, the conference will have several key features: The presenters’ PowerPoint slides will not be distributed in paper form, even
After years of grim revenue news, state tax collections are surging. As they do, governors and state legislators are making decisions about how to manage...
Since the George W. Bush Administration, Social Security reform has been atop the federal government’s list of top policy challenges. But when people talk about...
Charitable organizations form a vital part of America’s safety net. Ideally, foundations would be able to make greater payouts in hard economic times when needs...
Tax policies in the U.S. increase the incentive to donate to charity among those who itemize their deductions, and most of the tax revenue cost goes to subsidize donations made by relatively high-income people. Several types of empirical evidence which I review here suggest that the donation
The federal government has been borrowing rapidly to finance recent budget deficits. But that’s not the only reason it’s gone deeper into debt. Uncle Sam...
