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.
While it makes sense to ensure cryptocurrency transactions are treated similarly to other financial assets, the nature of these requirements as written are potentially unworkable.
3 min read
Return-free filing could reduce compliance costs for many taxpayers, but would only be as good as the system it is administrating.
4 min read
Reducing the tax gap is, on the margin, a good way to raise revenue, but is not without costs. Policymakers should consider compliance costs for law-abiding taxpayers as well as administrative costs for the IRS when evaluating measures to reduce the tax gap.
33 min read
While parts of the U.S. tax code can handle inflation, full expensing of capital investment would be a major improvement along these lines.
5 min read
Taxes are once again at the forefront of the public policy debate as legislators grapple with how to fund new infrastructure spending, among other priorities. Our tax tracker helps you stay up-to-date as new tax plans emerge from the Biden administration and Congress.
1 min read
The Biden administration has suggested several tax increases for his infrastructure plan. Public infrastructure can help increase economic growth, but by raising taxes on private investment, the net effect on growth may be negative. However, tax options like retaining expensing for private R&D investment or making 100 percent bonus depreciation for equipment permanent would be complementary to the goals of infrastructure spending.
5 min read
In our new Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code 2.0, there are several options that would simplify the tax code, including eliminating the alternative minimum tax (AMT). While this move would remove a source of complexity, policymakers should also consider reforming the deductions that created a justification for the AMT in the first place.
3 min read
If Biden wants to reduce tax evasion, raising the corporate rate, increasing the incentives to engage in tax evasion, and creating a larger tax advantage to becoming a pass-through business is counterproductive.
3 min read
While strong economic growth—fueled by higher levels of investment, productivity, and jobs—will lift after-tax incomes over time, policies that provide relief by immediately boosting after-tax incomes of lower-income households are also available. As lawmakers consider such policies, they should keep in mind the trade-offs among them.
4 min read
There’s a useful contrast between two revenue options related to President Biden’s infrastructure push. The president’s American Jobs Plan includes a proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. Meanwhile, historically, the gas tax is the main revenue source for transportation funding.
8 min read
The Biden administration is proposing to tax long-term capital gains at ordinary income rates for high earners, which will bring the top federal rate to highs not seen since the 1920s.
2 min read
The Options guide presents the economic effects we estimate would occur in the long term, or 20 to 30 years from now, but we can also use our model to show the cumulative effects of the policy change—providing more context, for instance, about how the effects of a higher corporate income tax rate compound over time, which we estimate would reduce GDP by a cumulative $720 billion over the next 10 years.
4 min read
Simplifying the R&D credit, making it more accessible for smaller firms, and ensuring full cost recovery for R&D expenses by canceling the upcoming R&D amortization are three things policymakers should consider when trying to improve the tax code for R&D.
40 min read
The “End Taxpayer Subsidies for Drug Ads Act” would prohibit companies from deducting the costs of prescription drug advertisements directed at the public. However, the bill’s title is a misnomer: the deduction is not a tax subsidy.
2 min read
In an effort to rein in perceived excesses in executive compensation, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and other co-sponsors have proposed to increase a company’s corporate income tax rate progressively based on the difference between median worker pay and CEO pay.
4 min read
The increase in expenditures associated with COVID-19 relief is another illustration of using the tax code to administer social spending.
3 min read
As the Biden administration turns toward infrastructure, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Or.) has suggested including reforms to the way the tax code subsidizes energy production in such a package, eliminating 44 “tax breaks” for various activities in the energy sector and replacing them with only three.
3 min read
The Biden administration has signaled its openness to raising the corporate tax rate, potentially by phasing in an increase over several years. While phasing in a tax increase, as opposed to hiking immediately, may seem like a reasonable middle ground, it would be the worst of both worlds because it provides old investment with a lower rate while penalizing new investment.
2 min read
A new study illustrates how overlooking an important element of the tax system—the structure of the tax base—can lead to an incomplete understanding of how tax reform impacts the economy.
4 min read
Expensing for capital investments is a powerful tax policy for economic growth. But expensing can also help shift the economy to a more sustainable future through increased investment in new, less carbon-intensive technology. Expensing for capital investment would eliminate a tax bias against energy efficiency improvements that reduce operating costs but involve high upfront investments. It could also serve to accelerate the existing trend of movement towards more green energy power sources.
28 min read