Publications by Topic
Topic: Taxes and Social Policy
Personal savings need a boost (Commentary)
Author(s):
Leonard E. Burman
The Washington Times. America's days of economic dominance are numbered because we don't save. The government is borrowing like crazy, and households aren't doing much better. The personal savings rate -- the share of after-tax income that people set aside for a rainy day -- has been falling like a stone since the early 1980s.
Published: 11/10/09
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Considerations in Efforts to Restructure Work-Based Credits (Research Report)
Author(s):
Steve Holt , Elaine Maag
The Internal Revenue Code has replaced traditional means-tested programs as the principal means for transferring income to low earners. The largest vehicle is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), now supplemented by both the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Making Work Pay tax credit (MWP).
This paper looks at the system's evolution, the important role played by the tax system in assisting low earners, and the complexities presented by the current approach. It offers principles to guide the design of a worker credit and child benefit that would replace the EITC, CTC, and MWP, along with a specific proposal.
Published: 11/09/09
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Credits and Exemptions for Children (Article/Tax Facts)
Author(s):
Elaine Maag
The Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit (CTC), Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), and the dependent exemption all provide benefits to families
with children. In 2009, a single mom (or dad) with two children can receive benefits ranging from $0 to about $7,500 - depending on her income, age of the children,
and where the children live. While this assistance is extremely important to many low-income families, they
must navigate a bewildering set of rules to take full advantage of the credits. Due to the piecewise implementation of these credits and exemptions, total benefits bounce around erratically as income grows.
Published: 10/14/09
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Fix health care. But fix the deficits, too (Commentary)
Author(s):
Alan J. Auerbach , William G. Gale
CNNMoney.com, Op-Ed.
Obama and other policymakers need to pay more attention to a fundamental conflict underlying the health care debate: People want the federal government to do much more than they are willing to pay for through their taxes.
Published: 09/09/09
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The Distribution of Federal Taxes, 2009-12 (Research Report)
Author(s):
Rachel M. Johnson , Jeff Rohaly
Overall, the federal tax system is progressive. On average, households with higher incomes pay taxes that are a larger share of their income. But barring legislative action, the numerous sunsets and phase-ins that Congress has written into the tax code will result in a tax system that is in a state of flux over the next few years. As a result, current law dictates significant changes in the degree of progressivity in the federal tax system between now and 2012. This paper summarizes the Tax Policy Center's latest estimates of the distribution of federal taxes for 2009 through 2012.
Published: 08/21/09
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Tax subsidies for private health insurance: Who benefits and at what cost? (Policy Report)
Author(s):
Leonard E. Burman , Sarah Goodell , Surachai Khitatrakun
Policymakers are considering modifications to the tax treatment of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) as a way to raise revenue to help pay for health reform and provide incentives to reduce health care costs. Understanding how current subsidies work is important to assessing health reform proposals. This brief presents essential information about the structure and distribution of existing tax subsidies for ESI and the implications for policy options.
Published: 08/18/09
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Distributional Effects of Tax Expenditures (Research Report)
Author(s):
Benjamin H. Harris , Katherine Lim , Eric Toder
The largest tax preferences for housing, health care, and retirement saving reduce federal revenues by about 3 percent of GDP. They raise after-tax income proportionally more for higher income groups than lower income groups, but raise income proportionately less for those at the very top. The net distributional effects depend on how these tax preferences are financed. If paid for with higher marginal tax rates, they benefit upper-middle income taxpayers at the expense of both lower-income and the highest-income taxpayers, but if paid for by lower per-capita spending, all high-income groups gain and all low-income groups lose.
Published: 07/21/09
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The Future of Long-Term Care: What Is Its Place in the Health Reform Debate? (Research Report)
Author(s):
Howard Gleckman
More than 10 million Americans require long-term care supports and services. Yet the system for delivering and paying for this assistance is deeply flawed. While most of the frail elderly and those with disabilities prefer assistance at home, many must live in nursing homes to receive Medicaid benefits, care coordination for those with multiple chronic illnesses is poor, and the system for financing care impoverishes many middle-income families. The national health reform debate allows policymakers to reconsider long-term care as well. This paper assesses proposals to restructure the delivery and financing of long-term care services.
Published: 06/15/09
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Beyond the Storm: New Reforms for 401(k) Plans (Document)
Author(s):
Benjamin H. Harris , Lina Walker
The financial crisis has provoked calls for a fundamental reform of the nation's retirement saving structure. This article argues that rather than dismantle the existing system, policymakers should build on existing reforms and expand the automatic 401(k) to help eligible workers save more and make better investment decisions. In addition, retirees should be given the opportunity to test-drive annuity products to realize the benefits of receiving stable retirement income, and near-retirees should be provided the option of incrementally purchasing annuity units over time to help mitigate the risk associated with varying interest rates.
Published: 06/11/09
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Financing Health Care Reform: Before the Senate Committee on Finance (Testimony)
Author(s):
Leonard E. Burman
The latest statistics show that 46 million Americans were uninsured in 2007. Health care costs threaten to bankrupt the nation if we can't figure out a way to slow their growth and pay for the government's growing share. Adding to the government's unfunded health care obligations would be reckless and irresponsible. In this statement, I will discuss some issues involved in measuring the impact of health care financing options, discuss an option to pay for universal health care coverage with a value added tax (VAT), and examine several incremental options to pay for all or part of health care coverage expansions.
Published: 05/12/09
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