Amidst the myriad proposals in President Obama’s budget are two “big ideas” that would raise revenue in a progressive manner without raising taxes. These important ideas should be emphasized in the discussion of tax and fiscal reform that the country should be having and will have to have sooner or later.  (The President also proposes [...]

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama’s called for a new law that would require high-income people to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. In response, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) have introduced the Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012, a proposal designed to [...]

Ernest Hemingway: I am getting to know the rich. Mary Colum: I think you’ll find the only difference between the rich and other people is that the rich have more money. It turns out that when it comes to taxes, at least, Ms. Colum, was mostly—but not entirely–right. To see why, let’s take a quick [...]

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 [...]

President Obama didn’t quite get around to saying so when he rolled out his latest deficit reduction plan on Monday, but his Buffett Rule—that no one making more than $1 million should pay a lower tax rate than those in the middle-class—is mostly about investment income. On average, high income people do pay significantly higher tax rates than [...]

On Monday, the Administration released its deficit reduction blueprint.   One part of the Administration’s proposal, which has received enormous attention, is that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction should observe the “Buffett Rule” if it attempts tax reform.  The furor over this proposal is surprising and the debate about it seems to have largely [...]