Daily Deduction Health, Holidays, and Highways
Renu Zaretsky
Display Date

Tune in today for a talk on the fiscal health of cities. TPC’s Tracy Gordon will be among the speakers at today’s Urban Institute event, hosted in collaboration with the National League of Cities. The event will examine how policymakers can measure and improve cities’ economic and fiscal resilience. It begins its live stream online here at 9:00 a.m.

The Koskinen impeachment drama rolls on. The IRS commissioner was planning to meet with moderate House Republicans to urge them to encourage their colleagues back off. Meanwhile, House leaders and restive conservatives remain at odds over whether to proceed with efforts to impeach the commissioner. And Senate Republican leaders keep sending signals that the effort is doomed.  

Elsewhere on the Hill today… The House Way & Means Committee will mark up a bill that would exempt Americans from the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate tax penalty if their health insurance was terminated due to the failure of an ACA co-op. This bill too will die in the Senate.

Should college endowments be tax-exempt? The House Ways & Means panel’s Oversight Subcommittee plans a hearing on September 13 to examine the issue.  College and university representatives plan to describe how rising tuition drives some institutions to use their tax-exempt endowments to fulfill charitable purposes by  reducing student out-of-pocket costs.

Will Wisconsin get on the sales-tax holiday bandwagon? GOP Governor Scott Walker proposes a back-to-school sales tax holiday for 2017. Covered items would include school supplies, computers, and clothing. TPC’s Richard Auxier explains the limited circumstances in which such a holiday might make fiscal sense for a state. 

Ask not for whom the interstate tolls… The Tax Hound is back with a look at interstate tolling through the E-ZPass system. An E-ZPass toll isn’t always the same: It can rise or fall depending on where you drive and which state issued your transponder. The Tax Hound wonders whether it would be not only more fair, but more efficient, if states charged the same toll for anyone with an E-ZPass, regardless of state origin.

An offer Denmark can’t refuse? Over the summer, someone offered to sell Denmark’s tax authority leaked data from the Panama papers on up to 600 people. The Danes are buying. Taxation minister Karsten Lauritzen said “We must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders who hide fortunes in, for instance, Panama… We agreed that it is wise to buy the material.” The price tag? Between $150,000 and $1.3 million.

Interested in subscribing to the Daily Deduction, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center summary of the day’s tax news? Sign-up here to get the Daily Deduction delivered to your inbox every morning. If you’d like to tell us about a new research paper or have any comments about our feature, write us at dailydeduction “at” taxpolicycenter “dot” org.