This Monday, 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. Analysts’ Tax Notes released its 2015 Person of the Year, which recognizes “an individual or organization that had the most influence on federal tax policy and practice.” This year, the Tax Foundation was the only organization to be nominated for the respected award. We have been recognized for our work on scoring the presidential candidates’ tax plans, the second edition of the International Tax Competitiveness Index, a new book on income taxes in America (Income Taxes Illustrated), as well as all the other work released by our Center for Federal Tax Policy.
The following comes from Tax Notes’ announcement:
Economists at the Tax Foundation normally have little problem staying busy, but a year like 2015 forced them to put their tax and growth models into hyperdrive.
That was in part because of an unprecedented number of Republicans — 17 — who announced that they would be running for their party’s 2016 presidential nomination, with most releasing comprehensive tax reform plans. Analysts at the foundation scored them all, assessing their potential 10-year impact on federal revenues and on such metrics as GDP and capital stock.
For the most part, candidates eagerly embraced the foundation’s projections. Viewers of their nationally televised debates often heard Tax Foundation figures cited.
While some on the left criticize it for being too optimistic about tax cuts spurring economic growth, the foundation’s dynamic analysis of the most attention-getting Republican tax plan of them all — the one put forth by billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump — fell close to that of the more liberal Citizens for Tax Justice. Both saw it costing between $10 trillion and $12 trillion over a decade.
Meanwhile, the foundation continued with other well-known products, including its International Tax Competitiveness Index, cited by news media worldwide. In all, it released nearly three dozen reports on various tax topics, including a 60-page chart book on the federal income tax. It also provided testimony and presentations in more than 30 states, along with an update of its State Business Tax Climate Index.
To top it off, the foundation celebrated its 78th birthday. “For any private organization that relies on voluntary contributions to survive for eight decades shows that it must be doing something right,” said Chris Edwards, a former Tax Foundation economist who now directs tax studies at the Cato Institute.
Another former foundation economist, Curtis Dubay of the Heritage Foundation, discounts criticism that his former employer is too business-friendly.
“If some think that it is too slanted toward the views of business, it is likely because they have never seen models, estimates, or analyses that properly account for the negative impact of bad policy,” Dubay said. “The Tax Foundation captures these effects in ways that other analysts do not.”
The Tax Foundation received State Tax Notes’ Person of the Year award in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Read the full announcement: Year in Review: The 2015 Tax Person of the Year
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