Lowering the Heat Around Raising Retirement Age
In commentary to the San Francisco Chronicle, Gene Steurle asserts that all the following myths about Social Security retirement ages are wrong: (1) Increasing the retirement age will reduce benefits; (2) Increasing the retirement age discriminates against lower-income workers with shorter life expectancies; (3) Increasing the retirement age makes Social Security reform regressive; (4) Social Security Old Age Insurance goes to the old; and (5) the elderly need to fear such Social Security reforms as increasing the retirement age.
Five Myths about the Bush Tax Cut
The tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, known as the Bush tax cuts, are set to expire Dec. 31, and the fight over what to do is increasingly heated. Should the tax cuts expire, as some Democrats have said? Should they be extended, as most Republicans maintain? Or does the answer lie somewhere in between, as the Obama administration, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, has argued in recent weeks?
Extending Tax Credits for Low-Income Families
Policymakers should be thinking hard about low-income families with children and the tax code. In 2010, the federal income tax system will deliver substantial assistance to these families through refundable tax credits. The Tax Policy Center estimates a third fewer children would be in poverty if tax credits were counted in a persons available resources when measuring poverty. They are among the most potent anti-poverty programs for families with children. In 2011, some aid targeted to the poorest families will disappear as the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The Impact of the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010 ("Wyden-Gregg") on Effective Marginal Tax Rates
The Wyden-Gregg tax reform proposal would represent a broad reform of the federal income tax system. This paper examines the plan’s impact on individuals’ effective marginal tax rates (EMTR), the incremental amount of tax owed on an additional dollar of income. We examine the impact on the EMTR for both wage income and realized capital gains against current law and current policy baselines.
We find the Wyden-Gregg plan would lower the overall average EMTR on wages relative to both current law and current policy, but would raise the overall average EMTR on gains when compared with those same two baselines.
The Future of Individual Tax Rates: Effects of Economic Growth and Distribution : Leonard Burman’s Testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance
Leonard Burman’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance on whether and how to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
The Future of Individual Tax Rates: Effects on Growth and Distribution : Donald Marron’s Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Finance
Donald Marron’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance on the individual tax system.
The Fight Over Fiscal Rectitude: Politics or Economics?
Decades ago, my parents taught me a simple lesson: when something goes awry and its outcome remains uncertain, do what you can and should do to the best of your capability. The future may not be entirely in your control, but by setting some good things in motion you make tough issues easier to handle.
How Social Security Can Costlessly Offset Declines in Private Pension Protection
Top Federal Individual Income Tax Rates
The reduction in individual income tax rates and the other tax cut provisions enacted in 2001 and 2003 were “sunset” at the end of 2010. Unless Congress acts to delay the expiration of the rate reductions, the top individual rate will rise from 35% in 2010 to 39.6% for 2011 and later years.
Why Nearly Half of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax
During the recent tax filing season, cable news and talk radio repeatedly discussed the Tax Policy Center’s (TPC’s) estimate that 47 percent of Americans would pay no federal income tax for 2009. However much of the commentary failed to explain why.