This was the presidential address given at the National Tax Association meeting on November 14, 2002, exploring the long term developments in public finance. In particular, it focuses on four areas: First, both external events and the advancement of knowledge have brought public finance analysis to

Concepts of equity and fairness are at the heart of tax policy. Yet, for all its populist appeal, tax equity is loosely understood and inconsistently applied. This concept comprises at least three distinct dimensions: horizontal, vertical, and individual equity. The very real tension among these

Within the Executive Branch, only the Treasury Department is equipped to deal well with the political crisis surrounding the imposition of the alternative minimum tax on tens of millions of taxpayers.

Despite a brief upturn in the early- to mid-1990s, the profits of nonfinancial corporations have dropped dramatically as a percentage of GDP in recent decades and are near an all-time low. Does this mean that owners of corporate capital are worse off? Not necessarily. The owners of corporations

Originally targeted at high-income households, the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) is now on the verge of switching from a "class" tax to a "mass" tax. Under current law, the AMT will encroach dramatically on the middle-class over the next decade and will become the de facto tax system for

Taxpayers pay alternative minimum tax (AMT) if their AMT liability exceeds their regular income tax. Originally targeted at a few high-income households who paid no federal income tax, this class tax is about to become a mass tax. The projected expansion occurs because the AMT is not indexed for