TaxVox

The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Individual Taxes

Why Nobody Understands the Income Tax: The Case of the Homebuyer Credit

June 27, 2011 –
Income tax filing season is never fun—either for taxpayers or for the IRS. It isn’t just having to pay. It’s also that feeling that you...
Individual Taxes

Another Great Morning in the Nation’s Capital

June 24, 2011 –
I woke up to the headlines in today’s Washington Post – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl were walking out...
Federal Budget and Economy

So...Who Should Pay Income Taxes?

June 24, 2011 –
David Walker , a former Government Accountability Office head, thinks it’s a problem that half of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes. At the June...
Individual Taxes

Two Bad Tax Ideas for Creating Jobs

June 23, 2011 –
In Washington, bad ideas never go away. Now two old tax breaks have resurfaced with the ostensible goal of creating jobs, despite plenty of evidence...
Individual Taxes

CBO Updates its Report on the Looming Debt Crisis

June 22, 2011 –
Every couple years, the Congressional Budget Office publishes a very scary document, The Long-Term Budget Outlook . As in previous reports, the conclusion is that...
Individual Taxes

Fixing Social Security Isn't Hard

June 21, 2011 –
Social Security has two obvious problems. While the system is not “broke,” as some insist, it will have only enough money to provide future retirees...
Individual Taxes

Let’s Bribe Taxpayers To Give Up Tax Breaks

June 17, 2011 –
Sensible budget wonks of all political stripes understand that a solution to our looming budget crisis will require more tax revenues. The aging of the...
Individual Taxes

How Michele Bachmann Would Knock 20,000 Millionaires off the Tax Rolls

June 16, 2011 –
In a revealing interview with Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal , Representative Michele Bachmann(R-MN) called for repealing taxes on capital gains. She also...
Federal Budget and Economy

The GOP, Ethanol, and the No-Tax Pledge

June 15, 2011 –
A majority of Senate Republicans yesterday took a symbolic but hugely important vote to eliminate $6 billion in tax subsidies for the production of ethanol...
Federal Budget and Economy

What Would We Need for Persistent 5% Growth?

June 15, 2011 –
Last week , I argued that Governor Tim Pawlenty’s aspiration for 5% economic growth over a full decade, is implausible since the United States has...