TaxVox: Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

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The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Federal Budget and Economy

The Obama Tax Cuts: More Generous Than Ever

June 2, 2009 –
Everybody gets a tax cut! To look at TPC’s latest estimates of the tax provisions of President Obama’s 2010 budget, you’d think there was no deficit of $1.84 trillion, or that the White House has no need to pay for an ambitious health reform plan. Or more education spending. Or more infrastructure construction.
Individual Taxes

Obama Giveth and the AMT Taketh Away

June 1, 2009 –
After I wrote about how Obama’s tax proposals would cut taxes for many wealthy households, some readers objected that I’d ignored the fact that the alternative minimum tax (AMT) would wipe out any potential tax savings. I had commented that the AMT could, in fact, do just that, but TPC had not yet estimated how many taxpayers would be affected. Research assistant Katie Lim has now generated those estimates and they show, as expected, that the AMT would take the potential tax cut away from many people.
Individual Taxes

The $250,000 Question

May 26, 2009 –
During the 2008 presidential campaign, much was made of candidate Obama’s proposal to boost taxes on “high-income” taxpayers. Campaign attack ads warned those folks—couples with income over $250,000 and others with income over $200,000—that a big tax increase was on the way. Joe the Plumber complained that the tax increases would stifle his unborn entrepreneurial dreams.
Federal Budget and Economy

Tax Expenditures and Young Children

May 17, 2009 –
Taxes aren’t just for grown-ups. In fact, our new Urban/Brookings study estimates that 40 percent of all federal expenditures spent on infants and toddlers flows through the tax system. That’s more than $22.8 billion. The two main programs that drive this spending are the earned income tax credit (EITC) and the child tax credit (CTC). Although both allocate fairly large percentages (18%) of their total program expenditures to families with infants and toddlers, they differ dramatically in the benefits that are refundable and those that are not. The EITC is fully-refundable, so in 2007 (the most recent year of available data), almost 90 percent of benefits received by families with infants and toddlers ($7.1 billion) came as a tax refund. In contrast, only one third of the partially refundable CTC benefits ($2.8 billion) were refundable, so most of CTC’s benefits reduced tax liability but failed to put cash back into needy families’ hands.
Individual Taxes

From Nascar to Nuts: Why Congress Needs to Stop Micro-Managing Cost Recovery

May 8, 2009 –
Recently, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced bills that would discourage private investment in toll roads through public-private partnerships (so-called P3s). Notable examples of this type of investment include the long-term concessions for the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road that were granted to private toll road operator-investors.
Individual Taxes

Jack Kemp

May 3, 2009 –
The landmark Tax Reform Act of 1986 would never have happened without Jack Kemp. The voluble supply-sider, who died yesterday at 73, helped make tax reform, and not just tax cuts, acceptable to Republicans. As early as 1977, then-congressman Kemp and Senator Bill Roth (R-DE) pushed a bill that would have reduced tax rates across-the-board. In 1983, Kemp bucked many in his party by making back-channel overtures to Democratic tax reformer Senator Bill Bradley (D-N.J.)—an effort recounted in Jeff Birnbaum’s and Alan Murray’s Showdown at Gucci Gulch. Bradley and Kemp shared a key political insight: If you can get rates low enough, you will ease the pressure to create, and protect, tax loopholes.
Individual Taxes

Re-cycling stupid tax tricks

April 22, 2009 –
As a bike freak and a tax geek, you’d think that I’d be thrilled about the new tax break for qualified bicycle-commuting reimbursement. I’ve been riding my bike to work for 30 years, so this new tax expenditure has my name written all over it. The biker in me wants to cry out, “It’s about time!” But the tax geek just groans.
Federal Budget and Economy

Now that I’ve got your attention

April 20, 2009 –
I was quoted in the New York Times yesterday, which is kind of fun. Many of my friends read the Times, and it’s a great way to make new friends, and enemies.
Individual Taxes

What’s a Green Consumer to Do?

April 17, 2009 –
It’s never too early to plan for next year’s taxes. Let’s say you’re thinking about doing some energy-saving home improvements soon and want to know what federal tax credits are available and how they work. How would you find out? You might try the IRS website. I did but, unfortunately, couldn’t find any information about energy credits for 2009.
Individual Taxes

Is Obama Missing His Best Chance for Change?

April 7, 2009 –
Since his election, President Obama and his top aides have frequently cast the economic crisis as an opportunity to push his agenda of change. Now, three months into his presidency, we are getting a good sense of how he and the Democratic Congress intend to use that opportunity.