All Tax VOX
Verdict鈥檚 in: SCOTUS upholds passel of health care tax provisionsThe Supreme Court has ruled that Congress can require people to either have health insurance or pay a tax if they don鈥檛. The political fate of the Affordable Care Act remains to be seen, of course, but at least we know it is constitutional.聽
Congressional senior moment? Flip-flopping on Bowles-SimpsonSuddenly, the tough budget reform proposed by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles is getting a second look. Oh, politicians don鈥檛 love the real plan, but they are positively enamored of their own self-edited, stripped-down versions.
Taking a new look at an old consumption taxThe idea of the X Tax鈥揳 progressive consumption tax designed 25 years ago鈥揼enerated lots of discussion among tax experts. Whatever you want to label it, there are so few new聽ideas in tax policy, it never hurts to聽revisit an old one.
Listen closely when Candidate Romney talks taxesRepublican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says he wants to cut tax rates, and he wants high-income households to pay the same share of taxes they do today. This first promise is easy to understand. But the second is far more subtle.
Payroll taxes cover about a third of Medicare costsMany Americans may believe that Medicare is financed like Social Security. They know that a portion of payroll taxes goes to Social Security and a portion goes to Medicare, and they conclude workers are paying for Medicare benefits. This is not true.
Talking heads: Candidates have big speeches, little vision
The great tax debate: Dueling Congressional tax proposals clashWhile optimists may hang on to the small morsels of agreement between Senator Baucus and Representative Camp's tax reform proposals, in general the dueling plans are opposites, making bipartisan cooperation on the issue seem unlikely.
Should we delay the tax cut debate until 2013?Over the past week, Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Glenn Hubbard have all made the same suggestion: Congress should extend all of the 2001/2003 tax cuts into early next year. It seems like an awful idea.
A better way? The case for a new kind of tax reformThere is nothing inevitable about the glum estimate set forth in the Congressional Budget Office's latest fiscal policy snapshot. What if Congress retained the level of taxation set by current law, while collecting the money in a much smarter way?
Is the GOP tax reform strategy a fiscal trap?As a matter of pure tax policy, our tax analyst analyzes the different option on the table. Ideally, Congress should build the best possible tax base and then adjust the rates to meet an agreed-upon revenue target. But in a partisan Congress, few things are 'ideal.'
Tax reform: The cases for going long-term, versus going prudentAs a behind-the-scenes debate begins among reformers over just how to fix the US tax code, some Republicans insist that big, broad-based reform would be easier to accomplish, while others in Congress advocate for a more step-by-step process.
New online tool to help families maximize tax, transfer benefitsState taxes and transfers can be an important, albeit complicated form of assistance for low-income families. A new interactive calculator aims to help guide families through the process, including the options when family income increases.
How the debt limit delay will affect US fiscal policyWhat if hitting the statutory debt limit does not happen until sometime in the first quarter of 2013? That is increasingly likely, say the folks who watch this sort of thing. And it would completely change the politics of the coming train wreck.
A path forward on tax reform: 4 stepsTax reform will be difficult, but with a four-step road map, it can be done.
It's summer. Time for a California budget crisis.Like a movie franchise that keeps coming back, California's annual budget mess is the same story year after year.
JPMorgan and the London Whale: Should we tax securities investments?Ever since the U.S. financial crash of 2008 and the beginnings of the pending Euro-zone financial collapse, governments have been debating whether securities聽transactions should be subject to a new tax. Such a levy would discourage bad behavior in the financial markets, but it could have dire unintended consequences.
Will Obama's views on tax reform 'evolve' too?Will Obama's public support of marriage equality spill over to financial matters?
With European elections, is austerity in the US doomed?It's easy to look at European elections in France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Denmark and see a massive rejection of fiscal austerity. Is that accurate, and what does it mean for proponents of austerity in the US?
Buffett rule revenue would be hugeIf you think the Bush tax cuts should be extended鈥攁n idea most opponents of the millionaire tax support鈥攔evenues from a minimum tax rate on millionaires would increase by a much more significant $162 billion over the decade. And that鈥檚 hardly the chump change than the Buffett rule's critics imply.
Can the US tax system be fair?Two economists, a tax historian, and a philosopher debated what a 'fair' tax code means at an Urban Institute panel this week.聽
