Tax Foundation
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November 7, 2009
What's New?
A popular defense of the proposed 5.4 percent surtax on high-income people to fund House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's health care reform plan is that it would only affect 0.3 percent of all tax returns. An analysis by the Tax Foundation shows that this small group earns about 14 percent of the nation's adjusted gross income (AGI), and would foot 36 percent of the entire federal individual income tax bill in 2011.
Click here for the full press release. View a chart comparing "surtax returns" and "non-surtax" returns."
The $1.05 trillion House health care reform legislation unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday is financed primarily through net cuts to Medicare (which would save $472.8 billion, or 39 percent of the bill's 10-year cost), and a 5.4 percent surtax on high-income individuals (which would generate $460.5 billion, or 38 percent of the bill's cost), according to the Tax Foundation's review of the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) analysis.
By comparison, nearly half of the $829 billion Senate Finance Committee plan is financed through Medicare cuts ($377.8 billion, or 41 percent of the bill's 10-year cost), and 22 percent would come from an excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" health insurance plans, which would raise an estimated $201.4 billion over 10 years.
Click here for the full press release. View Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 200, "Comparing Financing of the House and Senate Health Care Reform Plans." Download pie charts depicting a break down of the plans' financing here.
Based on recently released Census data, a new Tax Foundation report reveals state and local government spending priorities.
State and local government spending is broken down for nine specific functional categories and a miscellaneous catch-all: K-12 education, higher education, public welfare, hospitals and health, transportation, public safety, environment and housing, government administration, interest on debt and other.
Click here for the full press release. View Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 199, "Where Do State and Local Governments Concentrate Their Spending?"
The Tax Foundation will present its Distinguished Service Awards to Eric Solomon, who served in the U.S. Treasury Department as Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) from December 2006 to January 2009, and John Samuels, former Treasury Department Deputy Tax Legislative Counsel and Tax Legislative Counsel from 1976-1981.
Census Bureau data released today show that over a three-year period (2006, 2007 and 2008), homeowners in New York and New Jersey counties paid the most in property taxes, while those in Louisiana parishes paid the least. In seven New Jersey counties and three New York counties, the median property tax over 2006-2008 is more than 7 percent of median household income, compared to the national median of 2.85%.
Click here for the full press release. View Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 198, "New Jersey and New York Counties Rank Highest in Property Tax, Louisiana Parishes Lowest."
Federal income tax rates would have to be nearly tripled across the income spectrum if Congress were to close the deficit in fiscal year 2010, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. Instead of taxing joint filers with rates ranging from 10 percent to 35 percent, tax rates would have to start at 27.2 percent and reach up to 95.2 percent.
Click here for the full press release. View Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 197, "Can Income Tax Hikes Close the Deficit?"
