Conventional estimates that do not fully account for this rebalancing overstate the increase in revenues associated with eliminating the MID and will also overstate the progressivity of eliminating the MID, because households with higher levels of non-residential assets might respond by selling...
Adjusting Social Security retirement ages as people live longer would significantly improve trust fund balances over the long run, though it would have only modest effects in the short term. By the 75th year, Social Security actuaries project that raising the retirement age by indexing it to...
As people live longer, they spend more time in retirement, straining Social Security’s finances. This brief outlines the implications of three approaches to adjusting Social Security for longer lives: making no adjustment, which has applied over most of Social Security’s history; keeping...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) missed an opportunity to help low-income childless workers, very low-income families with children, and families with young children – all groups where investments could be particularly productive. The child tax credit (CTC) and earned income tax credit (EITC)...
When a recession hits, the federal government usually responds with tax cuts and additional financial assistance, because automatic policies built into the law often prove inadequate and elected officials need and want to respond to the crisis. This brief compares the distributional and stimulus...
After one year of the Trump administration, we assess the fiscal path implied by budget policies that the president and Congress have so far put in place. Using a new framework that holds lawmakers accountable for reforms taken and not taken, we project that over the coming decade, nearly all...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a new federal incentive—Opportunity Zones—to spur investment in poor and undercapitalized communities. Governors (and the mayor of the District of Columbia) have now selected which among the roughly 56 percent of eligible census tracts in the US should be...
Eugene Steuerle, Richard Fisher Chair at the Urban Institute and co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center gave this luncheon presentation at the ABA Tax Meetings Exempt Organization.
The Tax Policy Center (TPC), in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service Office of Research, Applied Analytics and Statistics (RAAS), has recently developed distributional estimates of individual compliance costs for tax filers. This paper describes the process used by TPC to incorporate...
Mark Mazur, Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, testified before the Joint Economic Committee during a hearing entitled “Unleashing America’s Economic Potential.” In his testimony, Mazur presented a review of the principles of desirable tax policy, clear and less clear findings...
The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Revenue and Distributional Effects
Conventional estimates that do not fully account for this rebalancing overstate the increase in revenues associated with eliminating the MID and will also overstate the progressivity of eliminating the MID, because households with higher levels of non-residential assets might respond by selling...
How Would Indexing for Improvements in Life Expectancy Affect Trust Fund Balances?
Adjusting Social Security retirement ages as people live longer would significantly improve trust fund balances over the long run, though it would have only modest effects in the short term. By the 75th year, Social Security actuaries project that raising the retirement age by indexing it to...
How Should Social Security Adjust When People Live Longer?
As people live longer, they spend more time in retirement, straining Social Security’s finances. This brief outlines the implications of three approaches to adjusting Social Security for longer lives: making no adjustment, which has applied over most of Social Security’s history; keeping...
Who Benefits from Expanding the EITC or CTC?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) missed an opportunity to help low-income childless workers, very low-income families with children, and families with young children – all groups where investments could be particularly productive. The child tax credit (CTC) and earned income tax credit (EITC)...
Helping Workers during Recessions
When a recession hits, the federal government usually responds with tax cuts and additional financial assistance, because automatic policies built into the law often prove inadequate and elected officials need and want to respond to the crisis. This brief compares the distributional and stimulus...
Where Is the Budget Headed One Year into the Trump Administration?
After one year of the Trump administration, we assess the fiscal path implied by budget policies that the president and Congress have so far put in place. Using a new framework that holds lawmakers accountable for reforms taken and not taken, we project that over the coming decade, nearly all...
Did States Maximize Their Opportunity Zone Selections?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a new federal incentive—Opportunity Zones—to spur investment in poor and undercapitalized communities. Governors (and the mayor of the District of Columbia) have now selected which among the roughly 56 percent of eligible census tracts in the US should be...
Challenges & Opportunities for Charities after the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Eugene Steuerle, Richard Fisher Chair at the Urban Institute and co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center gave this luncheon presentation at the ABA Tax Meetings Exempt Organization.
Estimating the Effects of Tax Reform on Compliance Burdens
The Tax Policy Center (TPC), in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service Office of Research, Applied Analytics and Statistics (RAAS), has recently developed distributional estimates of individual compliance costs for tax filers. This paper describes the process used by TPC to incorporate...
Reflections on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Mark Mazur, Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, testified before the Joint Economic Committee during a hearing entitled “Unleashing America’s Economic Potential.” In his testimony, Mazur presented a review of the principles of desirable tax policy, clear and less clear findings...