This is the eighth and final installment in a series that evaluates tax policy in the Bush Administration, covering the years 2001 to 2004. The paper summarizes our principal findings, and discusses some of the key tax and fiscal issues facing the Administration in its second term.
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 includes a major attempt to reform the tax rules for deferred compensation arrangements covering corporate managers. This paper examines the tax policy and corporate-governance policy objectives of the reform effort, explores the shortcomings of the...
This paper examines links between the Bush Administration's tax cuts and the goal of "starving the beast"--that is, holding down government spending. It is at best unclear whether tax cuts are effective in restraining spending. The data appear more consistent with the view that once fiscal...
Bush Administration tax policy has sometimes been defended as a piecemeal approach to fundamental reform. Consistent with fundamental reform, the tax cuts reduced marginal capital income tax rates and flattened rates. But the similarities end there. A well designed consumption tax would (a) be...
This paper examines the effects of recent tax cuts as a short-term economic stimulus. The passage of the tax cuts was well-timed to offset economic downturns, but several elements of the structure of the tax cuts were poorly designed to provide short-term stimulus. For example, the tax cuts were...
Tax policy can raise growth in the long run increasing the level and improving the allocation of labor and capital inputs. The net effect of the recent tax cuts on growth is theoretically uncertain and is the net effect of (a) the generally positive effects induced by lower marginal tax rates, (...
[Marketplace] While everyone is focusing on those things President Bush and Senator John Kerry disagree about, perhaps they should be paying attention to those things on which they do agree. Senior fellow and Tax Policy Center co-director, Len Burman, takes a look at what he calls the "...
This paper is the first of a series that summarizes and analyzes these policies and proposals. The series has two broad goals: to describe, interpret, and assess what has happened; and to examine the consequences of making the tax cuts permanent. This paper provides background information...
Because of the strikingly large long-term fiscal gaps being projected recently for the United States, researchers have searched for hidden assumptions underlying revenue projections that might be biasing the results. This paper addresses the extent to which alternative projections of tax-...
Exempting Dividends, Interest, and Capital Gains From Taxation
This article uses the TPC tax model to examine the direct effect of exempting all dividends, interest, and capital gains from income taxation.
Bush Administration Tax Policy: Summary and Outlook
This is the eighth and final installment in a series that evaluates tax policy in the Bush Administration, covering the years 2001 to 2004. The paper summarizes our principal findings, and discusses some of the key tax and fiscal issues facing the Administration in its second term.
Executive Compensation Reform and the Limits of Tax Policy
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 includes a major attempt to reform the tax rules for deferred compensation arrangements covering corporate managers. This paper examines the tax policy and corporate-governance policy objectives of the reform effort, explores the shortcomings of the...
Bush Administration Tax Policy: Starving the Beast
This paper examines links between the Bush Administration's tax cuts and the goal of "starving the beast"--that is, holding down government spending. It is at best unclear whether tax cuts are effective in restraining spending. The data appear more consistent with the view that once fiscal...
Bush Administration Tax Policy: Down Payment on Tax Reform?
Bush Administration tax policy has sometimes been defended as a piecemeal approach to fundamental reform. Consistent with fundamental reform, the tax cuts reduced marginal capital income tax rates and flattened rates. But the similarities end there. A well designed consumption tax would (a) be...
Bush Administration Tax Policy: Short-Term Stimulus
This paper examines the effects of recent tax cuts as a short-term economic stimulus. The passage of the tax cuts was well-timed to offset economic downturns, but several elements of the structure of the tax cuts were poorly designed to provide short-term stimulus. For example, the tax cuts were...
Bush Administration Tax Policy
Tax policy can raise growth in the long run increasing the level and improving the allocation of labor and capital inputs. The net effect of the recent tax cuts on growth is theoretically uncertain and is the net effect of (a) the generally positive effects induced by lower marginal tax rates, (...
Quietly, The Taxes Are Changing
[Marketplace] While everyone is focusing on those things President Bush and Senator John Kerry disagree about, perhaps they should be paying attention to those things on which they do agree. Senior fellow and Tax Policy Center co-director, Len Burman, takes a look at what he calls the "...
Bush Administration Tax Policy
This paper is the first of a series that summarizes and analyzes these policies and proposals. The series has two broad goals: to describe, interpret, and assess what has happened; and to examine the consequences of making the tax cuts permanent. This paper provides background information...
The Fiscal Gap and Retirement Saving Revisited
Because of the strikingly large long-term fiscal gaps being projected recently for the United States, researchers have searched for hidden assumptions underlying revenue projections that might be biasing the results. This paper addresses the extent to which alternative projections of tax-...