TaxVox

Let’s face it. Economists just see the world differently than everybody else. Take, for example, the question of whether Individual Retirement Accounts are tax-free or...

That headline sure sounds geeky. But if you have any interest in future tax reform, immigration reform, or health care reform, the way the Congressional Budget Office scores the budgetary effects of major legislation matters--a lot. And yesterday CBO issued a supplemental analysis of President Obama’s budget that included a full-blown look at how that fiscal plan would affect the economy, and what those economic changes would mean for future deficits.

“Here’s why your golf purchases could become tax deductible.” The Golf Digest headline popped up in my review of tax news a couple of weeks ago. Tax policy can be confusing, but this blew my mind. I married into a family of golfers, and I like golf (sometimes I even love it), but how on earth could my husband or I deduct the cost of our golf purchases?

Liberals and conservatives have been arguing for years over whether high taxes drive away those with high-incomes. Do millionaires flee from high-tax...