For years, lawmakers have been looking longingly at “the tax gap” as a way to help close the budget deficit. Each year Americans owe as much as $350 billion more in federal taxes than they pay. So, goes the argument, if we can only find ways to collect those dollars, we’d be a long way towards getting the fiscal house back in order.

President Obama promised during his campaign that he would raise taxes only on couples with income above $250,000 and singles with income over $200,000 but he never told us what he meant by income. In its 2009 Green Book, Treasury has finally filled in that blank.
The administration’s tax proposals call for hiking the top two tax rates from 33 and 35 percent to 36 and 39.6 percent and raising the threshold to get into the new 36 percent bracket. For couples, that bracket would start at $231,300 in 2009, up from $208,850; the starting point for singles would climb from $171,550 to $190,650. (The changes wouldn’t take effect until 2011 but it’s easier to use 2009 values and the basic idea is the same.)