Tax Filing Season: Options for Improvement
Efforts to improve the taxpayer experience should focus on the IRS’s operations and include structural improvements to the tax code.
4 min read
Expert
Alex Muresianu
Senior Policy Analyst
Alex Muresianu is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Tax Foundation, focused on federal tax policy. Previously, Alex worked on the federal team as an intern in the summer of 2018 and as a research assistant in summer 2020.
He attended Tufts University, graduating with a degree in economics and minors in finance and political science in February 2021. He also worked for the Pioneer Institute in 2019, spent a summer as a journalism intern at Reason magazine, and written op-eds for various print and online publications.
Alex originally hails from outside Boston, and enjoys Dungeons and Dragons, ’80s movies (Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, the Schwarzenegger filmography, Die Hard, etc.), and classic rock.
Latest Work
Chaotic IRS Filing Season Shows the Perils of Running Social Policy Through the Tax Code
As the deadline for tax filing nears, the IRS faces scrutiny for its backlog of returns, inaccessible taxpayer service, and delays in issuing certain refunds.
5 min read
Personal Income Tax Adjusts for Inflation, But It Could Do Better
In times of inflation, a review of the tax code shows that some provisions are automatically indexed, or adjusted, to match inflation, while others are not. And that creates unfair burdens for taxpayers. But it’s not always as simple as just “adjusting for inflation.”
4 min read
Windfall Profits Tax Wrong for American Energy
As oil prices skyrocket, a windfall profits tax targeted at oil company profits could punish domestic production and increase reliance on imports.
3 min read
Taxes, Tariffs, and Industrial Policy: How the U.S. Tax Code Fails Manufacturing
Policymakers actively marginalized the manufacturing sector by saddling them with cost recovery rules that prevent them from deducting the full cost of investment in physical plant and equipment. Going forward, policymakers should avoid haphazard fixes, targeted measures, and protectionism.
50 min read
To Stimulate R&D Investment, Stop Penalizing it in the Tax Code
In his State of the Union Address, President Biden called for leveling the global research & development (R&D) playing field by increasing federal R&D spending, specifically by asking Congress to pass the bipartisan United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA).
3 min read
Federal Gas Tax Holiday? Suspending the Gas Tax Is a Mistake
If policymakers are looking to change the tax code to help fight inflation, they should pump the brakes on the federal gas tax holiday and instead consider structural reforms to raise the economy’s productive capacity in the long term.
4 min read
10 Tax Reforms for Growth and Opportunity
By reducing the tax code’s current barriers to investment and saving and simplifying its complex rules, lawmakers would greatly enhance the ability of Americans to pursue new ideas, create more opportunities, and build financial security for themselves and their families.
40 min read
Taxes, Fiscal Policy, and Inflation
Consumer prices rose by 7 percent in 2021, the highest annual rate of inflation since 1982. Where did this inflation come from and what might its impacts be? Tax and fiscal policy offer important clues.
5 min read
A Holiday Tradition: Tax Extenders Slated to Expire at End of 2021
Tax extenders this year can be split into three rough groups: expiring parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), expiring parts of various COVID-19 economic relief packages, and the Island of Misfit Extenders.
8 min read
Who Really Pays the Tariffs? US Firms and Consumers, Through Higher Prices
The bulk of economic evidence shows for most of the new tariffs imposed under the Trump administration, US firms or consumers bore 100 percent, or even more, of the burden through lower profits or higher retail prices.
5 min read
Book Minimum Tax versus Corporate Rate Increase: Pick Your Poison
While the book minimum tax is smaller in scale than the proposed original corporate rate increases, it would introduce more complexity, inefficiency, and problems at the industry- and sector-levels that a corporate rate increase would not. Neither option is an optimal way to raise new tax revenues.
4 min read
House Build Back Better Act: Details & Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Budget Reconciliation Bill
Learn more about the House Build Back Better Act, including the latest details and analysis of the Biden tax increases and reconciliation bill tax proposals.
15 min read
How Will Build Back Better Impact Inflation?
The persistently high inflation in recent months has made some lawmakers question the need for additional deficit spending, In the short term, the Build Back Better Act would likely contribute to inflation, but the magnitude of that contribution is unclear.
3 min read
Comparing Tax Provisions in Different Versions of the House Build Back Better Act
The most recent versions of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan are improvements on the original proposal, but would still reduce economic growth and average after-tax incomes for the top 80 percent of earners in the long run.
7 min read
Top Combined Capital Gains Tax Rates Would Average Nearly 37 Percent Under Build Back Better Framework
Under the Build Back Better framework, six states and D.C. would face combined top marginal capital gains tax rates of more than 40 percent, nearing the top rate among OECD countries.
3 min read
Lawmakers Consider Untested and Complex Policies to Fund Reconciliation Bill
Congress is debating new ways to raise revenue that would make the tax code more complex and more difficult to administer. The new proposals—imposing an alternative minimum tax on corporate book income, applying an excise tax on stock buybacks, and, at one point this week, a tax on unrealized capital gains for billionaires—are unreliable and highly complex ways to raise revenue.
10 min read
Fixing Tax Treatment of Capital Investments Could Improve Supply Chain Resiliency
While taxes are not at the root of supply chain disruptions, improvements to the tax code could make supply chains more resilient in the future.
3 min read
Proposal for Reporting Requirements for Financial Institutions Misses the Mark
Reducing the tax gap is a good idea, but the reporting requirements for financial institutions could be better-targeted at the problem at hand.
4 min read
Carbon Tax: Weighing the Options for Financing Reconciliation
A carbon tax would be a less economically harmful pay-for than either personal or corporate income tax hikes and a more efficient way to reduce carbon emissions than green energy tax credits, but would come with other trade-offs.
4 min read