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Tax News
A Two-Month Payroll Tax Cut is Dumb, So Is How Congress Got There
House Republicans are right about one thing at least: Extending this year’s payroll tax cut for two months is ridiculous. The trouble is they are largely to blame for the very policy they are criticizing. Congress got itself in this mess because a few dozen self-styled tea partiers have refused s...
The 16-Percent Solution—Hard on the Rich
The fate of The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 remains uncertain. But thanks to a carefully crafted technical change to the current payroll tax cut, the Senate version prevents a handful of very high wage earners from potentially enjoying a huge windfall from the two-month tax br...
State and Local Budgets in 2011: The Crisis that Didn’t Happen (Yet?)
The year’s top story in state and local government was “hundreds of billions of dollars” in municipal bond defaults. Oh wait, that didn’t happen. It was “states coming to Congress as mendicants, seeking relief from the consequences of their choices.” No, although the Dickensian ima...
Time to End the Budget Brinksmanship in Congress
Sometime today, Congress will pass a bill to keep the government funded through September 2012. It will not reflect a careful and balanced assessment of the nation’s needs and priorities and how well government programs are meeting those needs. It will reflect the fact that government would shut d...
A Medicare Reform Plan That Just Might Work
On a day when Washington partisans couldn’t even figure out (yet again) how to keep the government running, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) did a remarkable thing: They announced a bipartisan plan to fix Medicare, probably the most contentious of polic...
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2011 was another active year for America’s tax and fiscal policy; thank you for sharing it with TaxVox. As we look forward to a busy 2012, we hope you’ll remember us in your end-of-year giving. By supporting the Tax Policy Center, you can help inform the debate about America’s fiscal future. E...
The Final Frontier: A Tax Break for Burial in Space
Just when you thought you’ve heard it all, the Virginia General Assembly is about to consider a bill that would provide a tax subsidy to encourage people to be buried in space. Is buried the right verb? Republican Delegate Terry Kilgore has proposed a deduction of up to $8,000 for people who agree...
Gingrich’s Tax Plan: Big Tax Cuts, Big Deficits
GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is proposing a massive tax cut aimed at the highest earning American households. Gingrich’s plan would add about $1 trillion to the federal deficit in a single year. And while most of the nation’s lowest income families would get no benefit from these tax...
How a Payroll Tax Cut Boosts the Chances for Tax Reform
When Congress finally extends the payroll tax cut that is due to expire in a few weeks, it may also be taking another step down the road to tax reform—and perhaps even to big Social Security changes as well. Why? Because without fundamental reform, it will be devilishly hard for Congress to ever g...
Pick Your Poison: VAT or Higher Income Tax Rates
With congressional deficit reduction efforts largely collapsed, the question remains: What are we going to do about the nation’s long-term budget mess? Since any realistic deficit reduction plan will require significant new revenues, is a Value-Added Tax a sensible way for government to raise thos...