Tax calculator 2.0: How will tax proposals affect your 1040?
In response to your comments, the Tax Policy Center has revised its .
The calculator鈥檚 popularity and use have more than pleased us but comments and questions induced us to begin updating it almost immediately after its rollout. TC2.0 incorporates three major changes. Now users will be able to:
鈥� Simulate either 2010 or 2011 taxes鈥攃ompare tax changes against tax law for either year.
鈥� Turn the AMT patch on or off鈥攃ontinue the temporarily higher exemptions for the alternative minimum tax or use their lower permanent values.
鈥� Estimate the impact of tax law changes on five built-in income levels. In addition to incomes approximating the 20th percentile, median, and 80th percentile for each of our six representative households, we鈥檝e added two higher incomes representing the top 1 percent and the top 1/10 percent of each type of household with sources of income and itemized deductions consistent with those incomes.
As before, the calculator lets you choose one of our ready-made examples or create your own taxpayer from scratch and then compare tax bills under three tax policies鈥攆ull extension of the 2001-03 tax cuts, complete expiration of those cuts, or President Obama鈥檚 tax plan.
Since we debuted the calculator in September, more than 60,000 people have run over 165,000 cases and the media have used the calculator to create examples for many tax stories. If you haven鈥檛 yet taken it for a test ride, now鈥檚 your chance to check it out. If you鈥檙e one of the thousands who have already used the calculator to compare policy alternatives, take a look at the new version and let us know what you think.
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