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The Impact of “Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code”

2 min readBy: Kyle Pomerleau

This has been an eventful year on federal taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. issues at the Tax Foundation. From covering the presidential candidates’ tax plans to putting together some great resources to further the tax debate, we at the Tax Foundation are excited about the renewed interest in tax reform. One reason we are excited is the important resource we developed this year that we think will be useful to lawmakers and the public in the coming months.

That resource, Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code, is a book outlining 86 commonly proposed changes to the U.S. tax system. Our team of economists worked for months to model the effects that each “option” would have on federal revenue, the distribution of the tax burden on the American people, and its impact on the U.S. economy.

Our goal with this book was to educate the media, the public, and lawmakers on the tricky mechanics of tax reform. Not all tax changes are the same and their impacts are not always clear. Each change can impact the economy and the American people differently. Our book provides a full, three-dimensional understanding of the effects of each of these proposed policy changes.

Now that the discussion over tax reform has started again, our Options guide will become even more relevant. Over the next few months, lawmakers will begin crafting various forms of a tax reform package. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will need to make a number of difficult decisions about which rates to change, which provisions to keep, and which to repeal. We hope that our Options guide and our other Tax Foundation resources, will be helpful tools as Congress and the new administration start to piece together a comprehensive plan.

Putting such a resource together is a lot of work. We wouldn’t be able to do it without your help. That’s why it’s so important to support the Tax Foundation today in our mission to bring smart, sound tax policy to all Americans.

Kyle Pomerleau
Director of Federal Projects

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