A year ago, the big worry in Washington was whether Congress would extend the Bush tax cuts before their end-of-year expiration. Failure would have meant a huge tax hike. This year the question is whether the super committee will produce a budget plan before its Thanksgiving deadline. Failure could mean huge spending cuts. Meanwhile, nobody [...]

Rick Perry is reportedly going to announce his tax reform plan, a so-called flat tax. There are, as far as I know, no details about the rate or exemption level of the tax or whether it will allow deductions for things like charitable contributions or mortgage interest.  So I can’t comment on the specific proposal, [...]

On September 21, TPC published several tables (T11-0359 through 0362) that examine how effective tax rates vary within income groups. Those tables were intended to shed light on recent claims that some high-income taxpayers face low tax rates. Unfortunately, we made an error in our calculations. That error, which involved rollover distributions from 401(k)s and [...]

Last week, the Census released the official poverty numbers for 2010. The proportion of people in poverty (15.1 percent) reached its second highest point since 1965, and the proportion of people living in deep poverty (half the poverty level) was the highest level since 1975 – 6.7 percent. The poverty line equaled $17,568 for a [...]

A graph on the cover of the Congressional Budget Office’s summer budget update illustrates two policy paths we could pursue over the coming decade. One would essentially keep our deficit manageable through 2021. The other would make things much worse. The light blue area in the graph shows the deficit’s history since 2000 and CBO’s [...]

Below is a post I did for Metrotrends on Friday. Financial markets have been on a pretty turbulent roller-coaster following the last minute bargain Congress struck to forestall a debt crisis, S&P’s downgrade of US Treasuries, and economic uncertainty in Europe. Most discussion has focused on national issues but it’s important to ask what this [...]

Congressional infighting last month over union rules and subsidies for small airports caused a lapse in authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration as well as the airline ticket taxes that help fund it. The Senate finally passed a short-term extension on August 5—it took Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and James Webb (D-VA) just 26 seconds [...]

Much has been written about how a failure to reach agreement on the federal debt limit would affect the economy and global financial markets.  Lately, attention has turned to state and local governments.  Moody’s warns that a federal credit downgrade would immediately lower ratings for 7,000 state and local issuances and possibly affect even some [...]

I’ve been collecting shells on the beaches on the beautiful barrier island Assateague and marveling at those famous marsh-dwelling ponies for about fifteen years. Until my most recent visit over the 4th of July, I’d believed that those ponies arrived there via shipwreck. Great story. Turns out, though, the whole thing was probably a tax [...]

Income tax filing season is never fun—either for taxpayers or for the IRS. It isn’t just having to pay. It’s also that feeling that you are playing a game that everyone but you understands. The homebuyer tax credit is a classic case in point. The credit changed so often over the past three years, and [...]