Publications by Topic
Topic: Tax Reform
Senator Ron Wyden on Tax Reform and Health Reform (Audio Podcasts / Sound Policy)
Author(s):
The Tax Policy Center
Mapquest the route to tax reform and health reform and all roads lead to the Senate Finance Committee. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of its health care and taxation subcommittees and chair of its global competitiveness subcommittee, has long been a proponent of making the tax code simpler, free of loopholes, and fairer to all Americans. Wyden will use the debut of the Tax Policy Center’s new Tax Reform 2.0 series to describe the tax aspects of the health care reform bill currently under debate in the Finance Committee and the alternatives laid out in his own health care reform bill, the Healthy Americans Act (S. 391). In addition, he will share his view of the prospects for comprehensive tax reform in 2010 and explain his own tax reform legislation, the Fair Flat Tax Act of 2007 (S. 1111).
Published: 10/01/09
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Focus on the Tax 'Avoidance' Gap (Article/Tax Facts)
Author(s):
Eric Toder
President Obama's tax reform task force has been asked to propose ways to close the $300 billion tax gap, which is the estimated difference between taxes owed and taxes paid either voluntarily or through enforcement. But the amount of money lost to legal tax avoidance - the difference between an income tax without special tax preferences and taxes under current law - at least double that lost to outright evasion. The perpetrators of this second, "avoidance" tax gap are legislators, not taxpayers. The panel's main focus should be on finding appropriate ways to close this second tax gap.
Published: 09/10/09
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Taxation of Saving for Retirement: Current Rules and Alternative Reform Approaches (Research Report)
Author(s):
Eric Toder
Most advanced countries exempt returns to retirement saving from income tax, but private saving rates are falling and many people are saving too little for retirement. There is a trade-off between the goals of promoting wide participation in retirement saving plans and allowing more choice to employees. In the United States, purely employer funded plans have been replaced by plans that rely more on voluntary employee contributions, while private saving has declined. Two approaches that may promote more retirement saving are refundable tax credits for low-income workers and rules that encourage or require automatic enrollment in retirement saving plans.
Published: 04/02/09
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Decoding the U.S. Corporate Tax (Audio / Video Files)
Author(s):
The Tax Policy Center
Significant reform of the U.S. tax system must include changes in the complex and inefficient way we tax corporations. What direction should reform take? Many have embraced the idea of integrating the corporate and individual tax. But in his Urban Institute Press book, Decoding the U.S. Corporate Tax, Daniel Shaviro argues that there are more promising directions for 21st century corporate tax reform. He considers significantly lowering the corporate rate, embracing international tax simplification, and requiring partial conformity between tax accounting and financial income. Panelists will debate these provocative ideas in a lively discussion of Shaviro’s prescriptions for corporate tax reform.
Published: 03/11/09
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Using Taxes to Reform Health Insurance (Book)
Author(s):
Henry J. Aaron , Leonard E. Burman
Few people realize that one of the nation’s largest health programs runs through the tax system. Reformers of all stripes propose to modify current tax rules as part of larger programs to increase coverage and control costs. Is the current system working? Will tax-based reforms achieve their goals? Several of the nation’s foremost experts on taxation and health policy address these questions in Using Taxes to Reform Health Insurance, a joint product of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the American Tax Policy Institute.
Published: 11/17/08
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Interview with Dr. Eric Toder (Interview)
Author(s):
Eric Toder
In this interview for the American Bar Association Taxation Section News Quarterly, Eric Toder discusses the relationship between the Social Security trust fund account surplus and budget deficits, prospects for future tax reform, reforms of corporate taxation, and the possible future role of consumption taxes in the federal tax code.
Published: 08/08/08
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Distributional Effects of the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts: How Do Financing and Behavioral Responses Matter? (Research Report)
Author(s):
Eliza Krigman
Distributional analysis has long been a central element in discussions of tax policy. However, standard methods of estimating the distributional effects of tax changes omit two potentially important factors: the financing of the tax changes, and the implications of behavioral responses for economic growth, incomes, and well-being. In this paper we reexamine the distributional effects of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts incorporating these two factors. Compared with the standard analysis, this "dynamic distributional analysis" shows that the benefits of these tax cuts were much smaller, on average, and much more skewed toward people with higher incomes.
Published: 07/08/08
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The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT): 12 Facts and Projections (Research Report)
Author(s):
Leonard E. Burman , Julianna Koch , Greg Leiserson , Jeff Rohaly
Congress originally enacted a minimum tax in 1969 to guarantee that high-income individuals paid at least a minimal amount of tax. Under today’s alternative minimum tax (AMT), middle- and upper-income taxpayers must add a number of "preference items" to their taxable income, subtract a special AMT exemption, and calculate their tax according to the AMT rules. If the tax under those rules turns out to be higher than their regular income tax, taxpayers pay the difference as AMT. Unless Congress acts, 26.8 million taxpayers will be affected by the AMT in 2008.
Published: 07/03/08
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The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax: Historical Data and Projections: Updated June 2008 (Research Report)
Author(s):
Greg Leiserson , Jeff Rohaly
Congress enacted a minimum tax in 1969 to guarantee that high-income individuals paid at least some tax. The AMT now threatens to grow from a footnote in the tax code to a major component affecting tens of millions of taxpayers. Although most lower- and middle-income taxpayers will remain unaffected by it, policymakers need to deal with the explosive growth of the AMT from an obscure tax affecting only 20,000 filers in 1970 to one affecting more than 33 million-a third of all taxpayers-by 2010. This document provides updated estimates of AMT participation, revenue, and distribution.
Published: 06/25/08
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