The Senate Finance Committee takes their turn as “The Highway Men.” They’ll consider tax changes for more highway funds tomorrow with Chairman Ron Wyden's bill to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through the end of the year. The plan would raise $9 billion in tax revenue over ten years. Tax code

Deja vu all over again, and then some. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen , who began his tenure at IRS in December, testified last night before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for about four hours on the loss of former Treasury official Lois Lerner’s emails and the crash of her

U.S. taxes today bear little resemblance to the taxes collected before World War II. Income and payroll taxes have replaced tariffs and excise taxes at the federal level while property taxes have become less important for state and local governments. And while the feds collected just one-third of

Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) deserve enormous credit for having the courage to do what few of their colleagues would: Propose to pay for transportation projects by raising the gas tax. It’s too bad they’d ruin such a sensible, straight-forward idea with a ridiculous budget

Tax credits are making health care under the Affordable Care Act… affordable. The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that tax subsidies have reduced the cost of the average federal health insurance exchange premium from $346 to $82. About 3.2 million people are paying less than $100

House Republicans would slash IRS funding. Their fiscal year 2015 financial services budget includes roughly $11 billion for the IRS. This would cut $341 million from the agency’s current budget, and is $1.5 billion less than the White House request. They are also outraged over lost IRS emails.

On the Hill, a vote on internet tax freedom. The House Judiciary Committee expects to mark up a bill to prevent states and cities from taxing internet access tomorrow. The “ Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act ” has bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. State and local internet taxes have

A tax break on the vine is worth none in the bush? TPC’s Howard Gleckman describes yet another stupid tax trick in his latest post. A provision for some fruit and nut growers was slipped into a bill restoring extra tax breaks for business investment. The goodie, also examined in depth by Marc

When the Ways & Means Committee sent the House a measure to make permanent extra-generous tax subsidies for firms that purchase capital equipment, I noted in passing that the bill included a provision extending “bonus depreciation” rules to fruit and nut trees. If I had read the bill more

An important feature of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the penalty tax imposed on people who do not have health insurance. But newly updated report from the Congressional Budget Office projects that just under 4 million people will pay the penalty in 2016, less than 15 percent of the estimated 30

We've known for years that the 2004 repatriation tax holiday did little to boost domestic investment or create U.S. jobs, as promised by its backers. Now we are learning that many multinational corporations were not even interested in using the temporary holiday to cut their taxes. Instead,