TaxVox

The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Individual Taxes

There Are Three Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes, and Data Breaches

June 2, 2015 –
Online, always: IRS hackers. They made off with data from 104,000 US taxpayers. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said yesterday that the data were used...
Business Taxes

What’s Up With the No Climate Tax Pledge?

June 2, 2015 –
Do you know about the No Climate Tax pledge ? I didn’t until I read a column over the weekend by the Washington Post ’s always-interesting Catherine...
Business Taxes

The Perpetual, Immortal, Eternal, Never-Ending Tax Extenders

May 28, 2015 –
The magic number for today is 16. That is, remarkably, the number of times Congress has extended the allegedly temporary research and experimentation...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

The Trouble with the FairTax

May 27, 2015 –
GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently got into a spirited debate with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace about Huckabee’s proposal to replace...
Individual Taxes

Marco Rubio Wasn't the Only One Who Cashed Out an IRA Last Year

May 26, 2015 –
It is easy to mock Senator Marco Rubio, who cashed out $68,241 in IRA retirement funds last September. The GOP presidential hopeful, who made about $...

Rewarding Work, Paying by the Mile, a Windfall, and… Tax Magic 


May 21, 2015 –
Redesign the EITC to help more low-income workers. TPC’s Elaine Maag thinks that’s the way to go. She explains in her new paper : “A worker credit...
Individual Taxes

A Redesigned Earned Income Tax Credit Could Encourage Work by Childless Adults

May 20, 2015 –
The earned income tax credit (EITC) lifts millions of working families out of poverty, but provides little support to workers without children and...
Individual Taxes

Are GOP Presidential Candidates Downplaying Tax Cuts Or Hiding The Ball?

May 19, 2015 –
Last week, I blogged on the many GOP presidential candidates who are talking about tax reform rather than tax cuts. This week, tax historian Joe...
State and Local Issues

A Divided Supreme Court Rejects Maryland’s Tax On Out-Of-State Income

May 18, 2015 –
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that a Maryland law is unconstitutional because it allows residents only a partial tax credit...
Individual Taxes

The Scary New World of Tax Fraud

May 14, 2015 –
Back in the day—say 2011--tax fraud was pretty straightforward. Taxpayers deliberately understated income or overstated deductions to cheat the...