Why are tax expenditures controversial? Q.Why are tax expenditures controversial? A.To some, tax expenditures are spending items that do not belong in the tax code. To others, they are merely a way of reducing taxes, and repealing them would amount to a tax increase. Read more about Why are tax expenditures controversial?
What are the largest tax expenditures? Q.What are the largest tax expenditures? A.Tax expenditures make up a substantial part of the federal budget. Some of them are larger than the entire budgets of the programs or departments that spend money for the same or related purposes. For example, the value of the tax breaks for homeownership, although reduced by the 2017 tax act, still exceeds total spending by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Read more about What are the largest tax expenditures?
How much spending is uncontrollable? Q.How much spending is uncontrollable? A.Technically, lawmakers can control all spending except the interest due on government debts. However, entitlement spending is sometimes said to be uncontrollable for political rather than legal reasons. It can always be controlled legally by reforming programs, but when an entitlement is extremely popular, reform may require more political courage than is readily available. Similar concerns apply to many tax expenditures—tax breaks that function much as spending programs. Read more about How much spending is uncontrollable?
