TaxVox: Individual Taxes

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The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Individual Taxes

The Gas Tax Holiday: Can the States Do Any Better?

May 2, 2008 –
While TaxVox and others have disclosed the folly of a federal tax holiday, some have suggested that temporary state gas tax relief might work better. Some New York State legislators are already pushing for such a plan. But before cash-strapped states jump on the bandwagon, they might consider how a previous experiment in Illinois and Indiana worked out. In 2000, Indiana announced that it would be suspending its 5 percent gasoline sales tax for 120 days beginning July 1. In response, Illinois also suspended its levy for six months that July.. Quaint as it seems today, the changes were spurred by a spring spike in Midwest gas prices to (gasp) $2.00 – a level drivers would now gladly embrace.
Individual Taxes

A Primer on the Gas Tax Holiday

May 2, 2008 –
If a gas tax holiday drives the price down by the full amount of the tax (18.4 cents), the average driver would save about $28 ($27.67) between June 1 and September 1. But we think the price would fall by only a small fraction of the 18.4 cents tax – so instead of $28, the average driver might save $5 to $10.
Federal Budget and Economy

Mission Accomplished: The Tax-Free War

May 1, 2008 –
It is the fifth anniversary of President Bush’s dramatic landing on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln where, in front of that massive “Mission Accomplished” banner, he declared “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” They have not, of course. And it has me thinking about how those of us who do not have loved ones in combat operations are sacrificing nothing for this conflict.
Individual Taxes

Capital Gains Mythology

April 29, 2008 –
Much of the reaction to the April 16 Democratic Presidential debate was directed at the moderators for focusing on character and perception rather than policy. But issues got mangled as well—not only by the candidates, but by moderator Charles Gibson. While questioning Barack Obama about his proposal to raise the capital gains tax, Gibson claimed that when the rate has been cut, government took in more money, but when the tax was increased revenue fell. Although this argument warms the hearts of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the implication that capital gains tax rate cuts raise revenues is not supported by the evidence.
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Clinton’s Gas Tax Holiday: Chasing Her Tail

April 29, 2008 –
Props to Barack Obama for resisting the siren call for a summer gas tax holiday. In contrast, Hillary Clinton has clambered aboard John McCain’s free-lunch bandwagon, vowing to support the gas tax cut he first proposed a couple of weeks ago. Even worse, she’s now tied it to an energy company windfall profits tax so, as she says, oil companies would “pay their fair share to help us solve the problems at the pump.”
Federal Budget and Economy

Stop Them Before They Spend Again: Budget Veterans Look for a New Entitlement Fix

April 24, 2008 –
There are few things more frustrating in life than being a budget hawk. You spend your days predicting dire consequences that never quite come to pass, trying to convince voters that their government can’t keep expanding popular programs without paying for them, and hectoring politicians into making votes that would be political suicide. Like Cassandra of Greek myth, you have the ability to foretell the future, but suffer the curse of being unable to change it.
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

McCain's X-Factor

April 22, 2008 –
While most observers are focused on John McCain’s proposed summer gas tax holiday, they have missed a much bigger idea from GOP’s likely presidential nominee: A massive tax reform—but one that, at least as it stands now, would be a huge windfall for business.
Individual Taxes

Response to "Scoring McCain's Tax Proposals" by the McCain Campaign

April 19, 2008 –
On April 17, the Tax Policy Center posted “Scoring McCain’s Tax Proposals”. Although I remain a fan of efforts by organizations like the Tax Policy Center to analyze taxation issues, the analysis is misleading on the whole and wrong in some particulars.
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Read Their Lips: Clinton and Obama Take the Pledge

April 17, 2008 –
In their debate last night, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama wandered deep into George H.W. Bush land by pledging never to raise taxes on “middle-income” taxpayers making less than $250,000.
Individual Taxes

Scoring McCain’s Tax Proposals

April 17, 2008 –
Senator McCain wants to make government much, much smaller. His specifics on how are sketchy—eliminate earmarks, programs that don’t work, waste… But his tax day speech gives us an idea of how much he wants to shrink the government. A lot. And even more than when we last blogged on the subject back in February.