TaxVox

The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Individual Taxes

Whatever Happened to All Those Expiring Tax Breaks?

December 29, 2011 –
In two days, 53 targeted tax breaks will, officially at least, die. By the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation’s count , that’s the number of...
Federal Budget and Economy

Note to the Rich: Don’t Spend All of Your Payroll Tax Cut Yet

December 28, 2011 –
After much anguish, Congress finally extended this year’s payroll tax cut for two more months. The final bill passed in nearly empty chambers a couple...
Individual Taxes

Rethinking the Way We Tax Charities and Those Who Give to Them

December 27, 2011 –
It is that time of year when we celebrate with family, remember all we have to be thankful for, and scramble to squeeze out those...
Individual Taxes

The Tax Vox 2011 Lump of Coal Award: Kicking the Can Edition

December 22, 2011 –
Welcome to Tax Vox’s fifth annual Lump of Coal Award recognizing 2011’s ten worst moments in fiscal policy. It is hard to imagine so much...
State and Local Issues

A Tale of Two States

December 21, 2011 –
With apologies to Charles Dickens, I’d like to tell a Tale of Two States. Earlier this month, on December 5, California Governor Jerry Brown and...
Federal Budget and Economy

A Two-Month Payroll Tax Cut is Dumb, So Is How Congress Got There

December 20, 2011 –
House Republicans are right about one thing at least: Extending this year’s payroll tax cut for two months is ridiculous. The trouble is they are...
Federal Budget and Economy

The 16-Percent Solution—Hard on the Rich

December 19, 2011 –
The fate of The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 remains uncertain. But thanks to a carefully crafted technical change to the current...
Individual Taxes

State and Local Budgets in 2011: The Crisis that Didn’t Happen (Yet?)

December 16, 2011 –
The year’s top story in state and local government was “ hundreds of billions of dollars ” in municipal bond defaults. Oh wait, that didn’t...
Federal Budget and Economy

Time to End the Budget Brinksmanship in Congress

December 16, 2011 –
Sometime today, Congress will pass a bill to keep the government funded through September 2012. It will not reflect a careful and balanced assessment of...
Individual Taxes

A Medicare Reform Plan That Just Might Work

December 15, 2011 –
On a day when Washington partisans couldn’t even figure out (yet again) how to keep the government running, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and House Budget...